DOS ain't dead - New DOS Oldbie Seeks Advice

New DOS Oldbie Seeks Advice (Miscellaneous)

posted by Rugxulo , Usono, 13.07.2012, 06:48

> Thanks Rugxulo, for welcoming me to the forum, and for your willingness to
> help me get back into the saddle again with MS-DOS.

No sweat, and I'm far from the only DOS user you'll find here and elsewhere. There are many helpful people, though our numbers overall are much smaller than other, more mainstream OSes.

> > Do you just need a refresher on the common DOS commands or how to
> install
> > or ... ?
>
> I'm managing pretty well so far. I've got MS-DOS 6.21 installed on the
> "new" laptop and I am simplifying my config.sys and autoexed.bat files.
>
> The one limitation I'd like to find a way around is the 8.3 filename
> limitation in DOS. I understand that if I were to run DOS in a DOS box
> under Windows I would be able to use long filenames.

Only if the software supported it (using Win95 int 21h, 71xxh API). So it would have to have such support explicitly or else in its libc or whatever. E.g. DJGPP v2 stuff can work with LFNs, but most others aren't as automatic.

> But I would prefer to
> avoid Windows if at all possible. I much prefer the elegance and
> transparency of pure MS-DOS.

As do many of us.

> So I'm wondering if any of the alternative versions of DOS allow longer
> filenames.

For Win95 LFN support in pure DOS, try this TSR (with appropriate software, e.g. DJGPP v2):

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/util/system/doslfn/0.41/doslfn041b.zip

You could also use a few similar TSRs (LFNDOS, StarLFN) or perhaps even "freeware" ROM-DOS 7 (just to mention it for completeness), but I don't really recommend that.

> > http://help.fdos.org/en/index.htm
> >
> Thanks for those references! I'm sure they will come in handy as I advance
> with this project.
>
> If I were to switch to an alternate DOS, such as FreeDOS, for example,
> would my MS-DOS batch files, autoexec.bat and config.sys files be
> transferable without too much tweaking?

CONFIG.SYS menus are a bit different (as also are DR-DOS, for example), but other stuff should 99% be the same, e.g. common .BAT files should all work fine with FreeDOS' shell, FreeCOM. (4DOS is freely available nowadays too.)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/freedos/files/

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/util/user/4dos/

You can check CONFIG.SYS syntax up above at the mentioned "help" URL. There also should be a CONFIG.TXT or similar somewhere (kernel .ZIP, IIRC). Never mind, found it:

http://www.freedos.org/kernel/config.txt

> > Feel free to ask or discuss anything DOS-related.
>
> Thanks again for your offer of help. It means a great deal to me to know
> that there are still folks out there who appreciate this "old fashioned"
> style of computing.

Take a look at some of the older threads here to get an idea of what is discussed. You might (hopefully) be pleasantly surprised! :-D

Post reply

Complete thread:

Old DOS Newbie Seeks Advice - CluelessInSeattl, 12.07.2012, 20:35 (Miscellaneous)
- Old DOS Newbie Seeks Advice - Rugxulo, 12.07.2012, 21:36
  - Old DOS Newbie Seeks Advice - CluelessInSeattl, 13.07.2012, 03:31
    - New DOS Oldbie Seeks Advice - Rugxulo, 13.07.2012, 06:48
      - New DOS Oldbie Seeks Advice - ron, 13.07.2012, 07:52