Best Linux Shell for EDA?

[linux_for_eda]

Hello All,

We are a University based IC design group who use standard IC design tools (Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor etc). We are currently migrating from Solaris to Linux. As a result of the fact that we are migrating from Solaris and also because of group members' previous experience, we have many users who have no bash-shell experience - their experience is mostly C shell or TC Shell. We are trying to decide whether to stick with the Linux standard bash-shell or use C-shell (or TC Shell) as the user shell. My instinct is to use bash as it is the standard Linux shell and will be the shell used for lots of examples etc. However, I would be interested to find out the recommendations of other board users in terms of factors to consider, experiences with the different shells for this type of scenario etc.

Many thanks,
John.

 

[blue_moon]

I would stick to C shell. Of course, bash is a lot better, but for EDA tools only I think it's better to stick with C shell. When I installed Cadence for the first time, I had a couple of problems because I translated bad some commands from C shell to bash. All scripts and commands in Cadence are written by default for C shell. I dont think you'll have anything to gain if you switch to bash. Of course, if anyone wants to use bash, he can call it anytime from the C shell, so you dont actually lose a thing.

 

[EcraZ]

Ther e are books available for bourne shell and bash shell programming. is there any ebook available for programming in C shell?

Added after 5 hours 49 minutes:

C sh Programming Considered Harmful

https://www.ooblick.com/text/CshProgrammingConsideredHarmful.html

 

[Hughes]

Running simple commands in bash and csh are almost the same. Their main difference for a eda user is difference between .profile and .cshrc. These files can be prepared by some specialized people. So, my suggestion is to use bash. If an eda user just want to use some interactive commands such as icfb, dc, calibre, he can hardly find the difference. If he want to do some scripting, he can choose bash or tcsh no matter what the login shell is.

 

[yeewang]

I don't think shells will make big diff if you really focus on the EDAs themselves.

When using EDAs, shells are only tools for convenience, once setup a script, just use it.

So, just stick with which you're familiar with.

If you're new to shells, congratulations, you're free to choose.

 

[wjxcom]

I thind C shell is very good

 

[gliss]

I hate the C shell. I use bash.

 

[EcraZ]

A shell is just an interface for the user to give commands to the computer to do something. then why is it working with EDA softwares the shell is always set to csh? if it is reading .cshrc file, the same can be done for other shells as well.

Any one in the administrative side can throw some light on this.

thanks

 

[gliss]

I used to work as an administrator. Typically EDA tools use csh like syntax and startup for their environments. Why? I'm not sure. It just sort of turned out that way. Someone with some history on this, not just an administrator may answer that. The reason I don't like csh is because I learned Unix on bash, so csh is awkward to me, even to this day. bash to me is more user friendly.

 

[_TopGun_]

Bash is the best IMHO

 

[tuza2000]

i think bash and cshrc are the same thing.
as a ic design ,you should know both of these two shells,because bash is the basic shell for linux,and chsrc is the basic of eda soft.

 

[gliss]

bash and csh are totally different.

 

[senado]

Working under Linux ans Solaris, the best solution for me is tcsh, it is full compliant with csh and have some very interesting options...

 

[IrDA]

i started off with the solaris departmental server we had at that time in my university and continued with tcsh with linux at home. After sometime though i switched to bash which i find it frendlier

 

[trilogy]

My idea is Bash is better and Csh users can easily adapt. I also switched frm Solaris - tcsh to Linux-bash. God it is better.

 

[tux]

EDA vendors default shell is csh shell it us good to use the same otherwise u have to change the syntax like SETENV(csh) to EXPORT (bash)

 

[hqing]

I use bash, because it "In addition to its Bourne shell compatibility, it includes the best features of the C and Korn shells as well as several advantages of its own."

 

[ahmad_abdulghany]

I prefer bash, no problems in translation from csh to bash at all!!

 

[gerryhsu]

I like C, the original

 

[beta0]

c shell or tcsh are better for most EDA tools.