Re: DOS prompt

On Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:15:25 -0700 (PDT), Hodges
<mrezoustah@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sep 22, 9:37 pm, Steve Hayes <hayesm...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
DOS stands of "disk operating system".

If your computer has no disks or discs, then no DOS is needed.

But when you see the C:\> prompt (or the A:\> or B:\> or D:\> prompt) you can
then give commands to the disk operating system to perform functions like
copying files from one disk to another, or from one place on a disk to another
place on the same disk, or from a disk to a disk, or to a virtual drive like a
flash drive.

How those commands are carried out depends on the overall operating system.
Windows 98 and below were GUIs that ran on top of an operating system called
MS DOS. Later versions of Windows are operating systems in their own right,
but when you give commands like xcopy at the command promps, you are still
giving commands to the disk operating system to perform operations on the
disks, which is what the original poster wanted to do.

So all the pedantic twaddle to avoid answering the question is just a waste of
space.

Copying files is a Disk Operation, and therefore it is a function of the DOS,
whether that DOS is built in to Windows or whether Windows is a GUI running on
top of it.

"DOS" is a group of similar operating systems, it is not meant to
represent any operating system that can manipulate disks, since that
would include nearly any OS since the 80s. It is generally understood
to mean MS-DOS or PC-DOS. In reference to Windows, it is universally
understood to mean MS-DOS. When referring to Windows, it can be
safely assumed that somebody referring to "DOS" does not mean
AmigaDOS, Commodore DOS, Atari DOS, or any other form of DOS. You
either don't understand what it is, or realize that you are wrong and
are just arguing for the sake of sounding right.

In reference to Windows XP "DOS" does not refer to MS DOS, since, as you have
pointed outy elsewhere, Windows does not run on MS DOS. But it does have a
command prompt that allows one to perform disk operations, and so say one
can't refer to that as the DOS prompt is just nit picking.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
.

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