Business Shell (BUSH) can be used as interactive command shell, scripting language with a source code debugger, a database client and a web template engine. With third-party support for the ABEE standard for Java Virtual Machine and .Net, BUSH is an all-in-one replacment for BASH, PHP, J2EE, Ruby, Python, PERL and PSQL.

There are many shells, interpreters and languages available. Virtually without exception, they are incompatible with one another. What's the point of learning a tool that, no matter how sophisticated it is, leaves your source code stuck with that particular tool. You want to do scripting, so you use Python or Scheme.

You want to do reporting, so you use Perl. You want to write a script, so you use Bash. You want to write an applet, so you use Java. To be a programmer these days, you need to be fluent in a dozen different languages. You would be making more money if you got a job at the United Nations.

The Business Shell is different. It's based on a language called AdaScriptTM, a subset of one of the most powerful languages available for Linux today. Ada 95 is a GCC supported language so any project you write in Bush is immediately portable to any machine that GCC runs on. In other words, virtually everything.

And it means that Bush scripts can be compiled using GCC and everyone knows that GCC is superior to most commercial compilers. If that's not enough, using the JGNAT open source compiler, you can even compile your Bush scripts into actual Java bytecode. There is another tool, A#, that will compile scripts into .NET byte code Things don't get much more platform-independent than that.

But Bush does more than just create scripts, executable programs and Java applets. It's a powerful computer language on its own able to do complex math, manipulate files, generate reports and able to do network programming. Bush will let strings grow as big as you need without worry of a running out of buffer space. And a number of built-in packages will let you do everything from compute trig functions to connecting to a web server.

But best of all, Bush is easy. Perl claims to be easy. Easily like riding a bicycle backwards in the middle of a thunderstorm. Bush is easy to read, easy to understand. You know exactly what a script does without having to have a reference book beside you at all times

Bush doesn't run your programs outright. First it examines them, compresses them, and converts them into intermediate code. (That's "byte code", to you Java developers.) Bush optimizes the program for the best possible performance. It also takes the time to verify your program will run before attempting to execute the first line.

And if you make to typing mistake, Bush will let you know before running your program. There's no need to worry that your typo will be a valid command like it would be in most other languages. Bush works for you, not against you.

One tool for all solutions.

Here are some key features of "Business Shell":

· Internal Byte Code
· 200+ Built-in Functions
· Template Engine
· PostgreSQL DBI
· TCP/IP Sockets
· CGI Library
· AU/WAV Sound
· Arrays
· Records (Structures)
· Enumerated Types
· True Booleans
· Types and Subtypes

What's New in This Release:

· A new built-in directory_operations package.
· A serious memory leak problem with pragma prompt_script has been repaired.