DOS ain't dead

MSDOS8 SYS (Miscellaneous)

posted by bretjohn  , Rio Rancho, NM, 25.04.2012, 00:58

> There used to be (20 years ago) a patch to disable the initial CWD search.
> Then you put .\ at the very end of the path spec to re-gain functionality.
>
> Does anyone have an idea how to re-implement this functionality in MSDOS7 or
> 8?

I've never heard of that "patch" before. I'm guessing the patch literally involved modifying COMMAND.COM with DEBUG. It also sounds like something that 4DOS might have implemented (they had lots of good ideas on "better" ways to do DOS than MS ever had), though I haven't used 4DOS in a long time.

Another thing you're forgetting about (or at least not mentioning) is that DOS looks to its internal commands (stored in RAM) before it starts looking at any external files to try and figure out what it should do. DOS also provides a function that effectively lets you turn any external program (TSR) into an "internal function", which means that the local disk doesn't need to be accessed. I've only seen one TSR that used this capability, though -- an old PC Magazine utility called STRINGS.

Complete thread:

• MSDOS8 SYS - w3a537, 03.04.2012, 00:47 (Miscellaneous)
  • MSDOS8 SYS - Arjay, 03.04.2012, 11:29
  • MSDOS8 SYS - mvojvodic, 04.04.2012, 12:13
  • MSDOS8 SYS - 0ffer, 04.04.2012, 20:59
    • MSDOS8 SYS - w3a537, 24.04.2012, 04:57
      • MSDOS8 SYS - Rugxulo, 25.04.2012, 00:10
        • MSDOS8 SYS - bretjohn, 25.04.2012, 00:58
          • MSDOS8 SYS - w3a537, 26.04.2012, 01:16
            • MSDOS8 SYS - bretjohn, 26.04.2012, 16:50