Optimal emacs shell for coding

[Jonathan Groll]

I know of only three ways to get an emacs shell:

M-x terminal-emulator
M-x shell                                                                       
                             
M-x eshell                  
(There is also M-x shell-command RET)
         
Question is, which one is best for coding? Lately I've found myself
opening up an xterm session to do miscellaneous coding support tasks -
and am mostly struggling with different readline history keybindings
(eg. I'm used to entering C-r at a shell to get (reverse-i-search) -
obviously in an emacs shell this will have a dfferent outcome to what
I desire!

Any recommendations?

Many thanks,
Jonathan Groll.