European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 25, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Home front mysterious Dos 3 Little letters that do a lot Jerry Kidder ing an older computer with new devices larger to a be hard disks or More memory and find a that it does t work the Way you wanted or work c t0 buy something else to make it now just what does Dos do for you and Why do you need it 3 when you want to write a letter Home on your new computer you open that new word process my program that you bought. You turn on your computer and a few messages Flash on . We have gone Over the hardware of a personal computer but without something to Tell that hardware what to do it just sits there. That something is Dos the disk operating system. There Are Many flavors of Dos and not All of them were created equal. The original for ism personal computers was called pc Dos version 1.0. It was shipped by ism in 1981. It was followed by Microsoft which produced is Dos version 1.1 in the Early 1980s. Then the numbers game began. Each improvement or change produced a new version and a new number. There Are still versions of Dos version 2.x being used but with the arrival of the newer families of personal computers most users went to version 3.x. The x stands for the number behind the period is Dos version 3.0 was released in 1984 for the 80286 the ism pc at. One of its features was the support of larger hard disk drives. Version 3.2 added the support for the 3-Inch floppy drive while later 4.x versions allowed for even larger disk drives and the Access of More memory. Find out which version of Dos is being offered with the computer you want to buy and what it can support. Nothing is More frustrating than upgrade feedback you will probably be asked to insert the Date and time and then you see the system prompt. This is assuming that you have followed the instructions about installing the system software or that your computer had Dos installed when you bought it. The system prompt is Dos waiting to be told what to do. The Date and time that you entered Are internal commands of Dos. We will discuss these commands As Well As some others As we go along. The magic behind Dos is principally contained in three files. The most known file is called . This file is the program that you talk to. It is the program that puts the prompt which we mentioned earlier on at Start up time. It also tells the rest of the computer what to do. You Type something on the keyboard the program interprets what you have said and takes whatever action is necessary to carry out your wish. will cause certain functions to Stop when More important tasks Are required. The action is called managing interrupts. It also puts the error messages on when you do something wrong or when something goes wrong in the computer. There Are two More files contained in the Basic Dos system. These files arc called hidden files and Are Only displayed when you use special directory programs that handle hidden files. Normally you done to know that they Are there until they Are gone. The bios Basic input output system handles All the i of devices attached to the system. These include display keyboard Printer Dis drives and so on. The bios is located in two places. The first is Rios which is located on the Motherboard and is contained in read Only memory. Therefore the name r a for rom a ios the rom contains routines that control the input output devices. The second is . This file contains the second level of commands for the input output devices and uses the information contained in the Rios. You done to need to worry too much about All this because it takes place automatically. The last part of the i of system is called or . This file contains the major part of the disk operating system and contains routines for controlling the flow of data Between computer and peripherals. It has two parts one for disk drive data and one for All other transfers. That is enough theory but maybe the next time someone mentions a Dos system or that they have Dos 3.3 it will make More sense. More on Dos next time with some discussion of the commands and what they do. Jeny Kidder is a computer technician at the stare and aspect of military life in Europe do you like Best pvt. 2 Thomas fray 317th Maint co Furth Germany being Able to get around and see people and do lots of travelling. Spec. Christine Anderson co a 527th military intelligence in Worms Germany being Able to understand other people and have the Chance to work together to solve the same problems. You find out that we re really All the same. Sgt. Grady Thomas 5th signal come Worms Germany its got to be the travel. I go to a lot of Volks marches and you go through towns you done to even know the names of. Its different from the states a you done to have to go far to be in the country. My of. Jim Pool 5th signal come Worms Germany the historical significance. I studied history and this is where a lot of history took place. And of course we Are living it now. Melissa Smith Cook at Monteith Golf course Furth Germany the fests the open air markets and the Flowers in the Spring. Compiled by stars and stripes staff november 25,1990 sunday to plus Page 15
