Introduction to DOS

DOS (which stands for Disk Operating System) is a operating system developed by Microsoft and “introduced on the original IBM PC in 1982″ (Parsons and Oja 2008). DOS is also known as Windows Command Line, Command Prompt, CMD.exe, or command.com.

DOS features a command line interface where the user must enter commands to execute processes. This is in great contrast to the “point and click” graphical user interfaces of today like XP and Vista. DOS has provided a kernel for almost all their operating systems including 3.1, 95, 98, Me, 2000, and XP. (Parsons and Oja 2008). During the 80’s, there were thousands of software programs out there for DOS such as Visicalc. By today’s standards and it’s command line interface however, these program are considered crude and obsolete.

DOS features commands that are both internal and external commands which require a proper order or syntax as well as parameters to execute effectively by a user. Because of this, DOS is not user friendly.

If you’re using a Windows based computer, you can get to DOS by going to “Start”, “All Programs”, “Accessories”, and then “Command Prompt.”

Advantages/Disadvantages

There’s not many advantages to using DOS for the average PC user:

• The kernel is extremely small. The OS could fit on a floppy disk.
• If you know to use it, you can execute commands faster than using the GUI.

Now, the disadvantages are many based on today’s modern, easier-to-use OS’s:

• As mentioned, DOS is a command line interface; no GUI
• Requires knowing the DOS commands.
• DOS only support the 8.3 format for file names. This means file names are limited to eight characters with a three digit file extension.
• Proper order or syntax of commands is required.
• Requires moving through numerous file directories to find what you’re looking for (unless you already know where it’s located)

Written by Clio

Source:

¹ Parsons, June, and Dan Oja. Computer Concepts. 10th edition. Boston: Thomson Course Technology, 2008.

² Chu, Clio. “DOS 101.” Pikachu’s Hideaway. 20 Dec 2008. 20 Jan 2009 http://pikachushideaway.pichusworld.net/dos101.php.