reworked inner loop; now checks for a lisp symbol before trying to run on the system shell. also added helper function for converting a shell programs output to a list.

shell.scm

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ;;; documentation at http://thintz.com/chicken-scheme-shell
-(use shell readline)
+(use readline symbol-utils)
 
 (define (getenv2 e)
  ;; handles exorcism of getenv from 4.6.4 onwards
@@ -21,20 +21,37 @@
 (define exit? (make-parameter #f))
 (define (exit) (exit? #t))
 
+; now we can can actually use things in a more lispy way
+; #;1> (cmd->list "ls" read-line)
+; (file1 file2 file3)
+; #;2> (map (lambda (file) (run (string-append "cat " file)))
+;             (cmd->list "ls" read-line))
+; ...contents of all the files in the current directory
+(define (cmd->list cmd read-func)
+  (with-input-from-pipe
+   cmd
+   (lambda ()
+     (letrec ((get-next (lambda (o)
+			  (let ((v (read-func)))
+			    (if (not (eof-object? v))
+				(get-next (cons v o))
+				(reverse o))))))
+       (get-next '())))))
+
+(define (run cmd) (process-wait (process-run cmd)))
+
 (define (shell-repl)
   (if (exit?)
        #t
        (let ((x (read)))
-          (begin (handle-exceptions
-                  exn
 	 (handle-exceptions
 	  exn
 	  (begin (print-error-message exn)
 		 (display (with-output-to-string (lambda () (print-call-chain)))))
-                   (execute (list x)))
-                  (display (eval x))
+	  (if (unbound? x)
+	      (run (symbol->string x))
+	      (display (eval x)))
 	  (newline))
-                 (newline)
-                 (shell-repl)))))
+	 (shell-repl))))
 
 (shell-repl)