MS-DOS

Features and history of MS-DOS(tm)

by Blazko, mail@neveprise.de

Version: 1.0, 2001-03-26

This article gives a brief introduction on Microsoft's Disk Operating System (MS-DOS).

1.1 history > top of page

Originally, MS-DOS was an experimental operating system called QDOS (quick and dirty operating system), that had been bought from a recently founded firm known as Microsoft. They continued development and renamed it to MS-DOS. Although it has its origins in the early 80's, it still exists in Version 7.x in Windows 32bit platforms.

the classic prompt
Pic A: the classic prompt (click to enlarge)

A long time, DOS still had a large role as base for games, but since the successful introduction of DirectX, DOS nearly has no meaning at all.

2.1 general > top of page

DOS are low level operating systems, only to use via prompt. One of the greatest advances was the generic printer interface for applications.

the editor
Pic B: the editor (click to enlarge)

2.2 performance > top of page

  • low overhead allowed high performance

2.3 control > top of page

  • only by prompt or simple third-party ASCII interfaces
  • automatization by scripts (batch files)

2.4 hardware > top of page

  • hardware not directly supported by OS except basic stuff; software had to deploy wrappers
  • but: printers were directly supported via API

Copyleft (C)2001 by Blazko. This document is licensed under the terms of the GPL.