Bit of a historical question: MS-DOS

On 02/06/2012 3:37 PM, GreyCloud wrote:
In my experiences with MS-DOS, I've never seen 4dos.exe. The only thing
that I saw was command.com... msdos.sys & io.sys.
The bios usually has to do with low-level system calls. I used to have
the IBM reference books on those system calls, but never saw things like
CD, COPY, REN, etc. in their book.
I suppose I could fire up the old IBM I do have and try this myself.

4DOS was an alternate command.com, which you had to buy separately. The
company behind it eventually sold the rights to it to Norton, which
appropriately renamed it to NDOS. Exact same functionality as 4DOS, but
different name. It basically was an improved command.com with many
advanced features dedicated to making the user interface easier (history
recall, sophisticated DOS-based menu creation, etc., etc.). If you're
familiar with Linux or Unix, think of it like being the difference
between "bash" and "sh": i.e. basically exactly the same functionality
and then some.

Back in those days I also used to multitask DOS programs using Desqview.
The combination of Desqview and 4DOS was probably the ultimate
command-line oriented operating system for PC's.

Yousuf Khan

On 02/06/2012 9:46 AM, Bob I wrote:
C:\DOS

https://scs.senecac.on.ca/~albert.pa...00/doscmd.html

Wish I'd found that site when I was doing my Google search before asking
here. It's hard to get the exact right search terms.

Yousuf Khan

On 03/06/2012 2:28 AM, DK wrote:
In , wrote:
On 6/2/2012 8:54 PM PT, Ant typed:

Nah, we haven't touched QEMM, Extended vs. Expanded RAM ;-)

No no! XMS, EMS, conventional memory (EVIL!!), config.sys, autoexec.bat,
etc.

Oh remember, DoubleSpace, Stacker, etc.?

I do. Stacker was absolutely great!

But DoubleSpace was horrible. I lost a lot of data due to that one.

Yousuf Khan

David H. Lipman wrote:

Nah, we haven't touched QEMM, Extended vs. Expanded RAM ;-)

Yeah, I remember QEMM. I remember back then of paying something like
$2500 for a full-sized memory board fully populated with all of 4 MB of
RAM. All the chips were socketed so you bought tubes of memory chips
and had to insert them yourself. Cost was more than my entire computer.

And to think that edlin.com is still with us from all the way back then.

GreyCloud wrote:

In my experiences with MS-DOS, I've never seen 4dos.exe. The only thing
that I saw was command.com... msdos.sys & io.sys.
The bios usually has to do with low-level system calls. I used to have
the IBM reference books on those system calls, but never saw things like
CD, COPY, REN, etc. in their book.
I suppose I could fire up the old IBM I do have and try this myself.

4DOS
Caldera OpenDOS
aka Novell DOS (after Novell acquired Digital Research)
aka DR-DOS (DR = Digital Research)
FreeDOS
aka PD-DOS

Those are the ones that I remember. There were a slew of "hobbyist" DOS
shell alternatives but those projects were too tiny to have any impact
regarding usage of alternative or replacement command interpreters.
Whether or not you even know the DOS shell can be replaced really
depends on how long you have been using PCs. Many were introduced as
enhanced alternatives to MS/PC-DOS (i.e., richer and more powerful
commands and features) or as a consequence of Microsoft's announcement
that it would no longer sell MS-DOS (c.1994?).

Anyone that bothered to learn MS-DOS would find out how to edit the
config.sys file and what all of its settings meant. That meant you
would have learned about the 'shell' and what it was for. However, the
vast majority of users never bothered to crack open the config files or
even look at the options in their apps. They weren't interested in
knowing the OS and often understood or used just a fraction of the apps
they installed. Using computers wasn't fun for them. It was a chore.
It's similar to the difference in users of cars: some like to work on
their own cars to fix or enhance them while others just want to use them
and pay someone else to repair them.

On 03/06/2012 1:56 AM, Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 02/06/2012 9:46 AM, Bob I wrote:
C:\DOS

https://scs.senecac.on.ca/~albert.pa...00/doscmd.html

Wish I'd found that site when I was doing my Google search before asking
here. It's hard to get the exact right search terms.

Yousuf Khan


I've found if you use a longer search phrase, usually it's more likely
you'll find what you want. Eg, DOS Commands location vs DOS Commands.
Rearranging the word order is always worth a try, too.

HTH,
Wolf K.

VanguardLH wrote:

TomT wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

To TomT:
Whenever you change the Newsgroups list, add a comment about making that
change. It's considered netiquette to inform of changing this header.
Lack of notification is typical of troll-like behavior or could be a
mistake in use of your newsreader. If you change the Newsgroups list,
add a note saying which newsgroups you chose to omit in your reply at
the top of your reply post.

OK, you're going to have to explain what "changes the newsgroup list"
means. This is the first time I've heard of this.

TomT

What newsgroups did the OP (original poster) have in his post? His
Newsgroups header had:

microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support
alt.windows7.general
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips

What newsgroups were in your reply to the OP? Your Newsgroups header
had:

alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt

The OP cross-posted to 4 newsgroups some of which may not be considered
germane to his topic. Replies to the OP (and to anyone that replied and
didn't modify the Newsgroups header) would have their posts go to the
same original list of newsgroups. However, anyone that replies to your
post might not notice you changed the newsgroups list (as I did) so
their replies only go into the newsgroups you picked which differs from
those specified by the OP.

rest of reply snipped for brevity

VLH - Thanks for taking the time to explain.

TomT

Remember DOS Shell?
--
"What is that?" "Some kind of insect?" "It's an ant." "Girl, you needed
an exterminator. She had ants on her face." "Well, these aren't your
garden-variety dumpster ants." "And they aren't ... to decomp." "Why are
they in her stomach?" "La hormiga culona--leaf cutter ants. It's a
Colombian dish." "Are you saying that people eat them?" "Fried." "Okay,
so we are looking for a club that serves fried ants." --CSI: Miami
(Wannabe episode; #218)
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

On 03/06/2012 8:25 AM, Wolf K wrote:
On 03/06/2012 1:56 AM, Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 02/06/2012 9:46 AM, Bob I wrote:
C:\DOS

https://scs.senecac.on.ca/~albert.pa...00/doscmd.html

Wish I'd found that site when I was doing my Google search before asking
here. It's hard to get the exact right search terms.

Yousuf Khan


I've found if you use a longer search phrase, usually it's more likely
you'll find what you want. Eg, DOS Commands location vs DOS Commands.
Rearranging the word order is always worth a try, too.

I think I actually used that search term, "dos commands location" or
maybe even "external dos commands location".

Yousuf Khan

On 03/06/2012 12:21 PM, Ant wrote:
Remember DOS Shell?

Yes, but I never used it, by that point I was already using DOS for
several years and I was already familiar with the command-line.

Yousuf Khan