Shell? PathExt? Searching?

[smaziz]

Well this is a big problem, so i would really be grateful if someone can help me out..

1. what is the shell? in simple english terms.

2. Do command words have drive letters and/ or backslash's in them

I am reading up on how the shell searches for a command and the first step was , "if the command word has a drive letter or has a backslash : run the program.

Also there is something else i didnt get, see if there is a file in the current directory, named command-word.pathext

What is Pathext?

i will be very grateful if someoen can help me..

I am using a windows XP PC, with cmd.exe

 

[intercodes]

smaziz,

1. what is the shell? in simple english terms.

You know only english and I know only french. Now, How do we communicate? using an interpreter .
Shell is pretty much the interpreter between the Kernel and the user. You give commands to shell , shell interprets that to the kernel which does much more complex functions.

2. Do command words have drive letters and/ or backslash's in them

I am reading up on how the shell searches for a command and the first step was , "if the command word has a drive letter or has a backslash : run the program.

I could't get this part. Could you be more clear? . You want to know how the shell finds the commands when it is executed?

Also there is something else i didnt get, see if there is a file in the current directory, named command-word.pathext
What is Pathext?
i will be very grateful if someoen can help me..

Pathtext? That is supposed to be the file extension, i guess