DOS

OK now, let's get one thing straight this is the Best Dos Page on the internet! and I'm not the author.
Continued adaptation with full permission of the author, Claudio Colitti.
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PATHS OF THIS COURSE

MS-DOS FIRST VERSION

MS-DOS is not freeware. So the following notes are interesting only if you have MS-DOS in your computer or your school has the permission from Microsoft to use it (or if you want to know more about some brick solutions not described in the freeware part). If you want to read only the freeware DOS part, please go here.
 

We'll use MS-DOS from version 6.22 to above. This is the first MS-DOS version (Win95 version 7.10) of the assembled OS for the children I made for this course:
 

boot files command.com  93.9 KB> io.sys   209 KB msdos.sys   0 Bytes drivers himem.sys  32.5 KB ramdrive.sys  12.4 KB mouse.exe   107 KB mouse.lan  3.82 KB mscdex.exe  24.8 KB vide-cdd.sys  10.9 KB

principal programs edit.com  69.0 KB edit.hlp  13.2 KB dosshell.exe  232 KB dosshell.com  4.54 KB dosshell.hlp   188 KB dosshell.grb 4.31 KB dosshell.vid  9.24 KB dosshell.ini  16.0 KB dosswap.exe  18.3 KB

compression programs pkzip.exe  41.1 KB pkunzip.exe  28.6 KB secondary programs ombra.zip  96.0 KB showjpg.zip  20.4 KB ... ...

You can see that I've not installed some important DOS files. This is because:

1) I used a very easy configuration.
2) They are too big (the web is full of the same files but littler). For example:
 

MICROSOFT MS-DOS choice.com    5.22 KB

Jem E. Berkes ask.com       67 Bytes

You can find the fine FREEWARE ask.com here: http://www.pc-tools.net/dos/freeware.

3) Some programs, for example ombra, do not use these files.

If you find Dosshell unable to work with some graphics, this is not a bad thing. I use it in a lesson to explain that Dosshell has a bug: it is not able to understand if it can or cannot to use these graphic modes, and children can play with the graphic choice in search of their first "manual" debug...

The best of the learning with few. Thanks to Microsoft.
 

HOW TO MAKE THIS FLOPPY

Turn on your computer. If you use MS-DOS type at the prompt format a: /s.
With Windows 95/98, click on computer resources, click on the floppy icon and format it with the boot option. Alternatively you may also go to a dos prompt and type format a: /s with the Windows 95/98 operative system also.
MS-DOS and Windows 95 will install the three boot files plus drvspace.bin: delete it. Windows 98 includes other files: delete them.
If you use MS-DOS and you don't see some files, don't worry. Type at the prompt dir /a a:. They are hidden.

In MS-DOS you will find the drivers himem.sys, mscdex.exe, ramdrive.sys, and the editor files edit.* in the directory \Dos. In Windows 95/98 they are in the directory \Windows\Command. Copy them as they are in the floppy.

**************
The Dos editor edit.com (413 bytes only) requires Dos Qbasic.exe 194.4 Kb also found in the c:\dos directory.
But you can use for purpose of this first disk, a fine program, Terse, which is a tiny free text editor, written by Yossi Gil, and can be found at: http://gatekeeper.research.compaq.com/pub/micro/pc/simtelnet/msdos/editor/terse12.zip

**************

For the mouse.* files, you need the MS-DOS mouse driver (you can freely download it from the site http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q192/9/47.asp ). For the Dosshell.* files you need the MS-DOS 6.22 supplemental disk (you can freely download it from the site ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/mslfiles/SUP622.EXE) or alternatively from http://www.geocities.com/disk_operative_system/sup622.zip if you have HTML only browser.

After having unpacked them, copy in the floppy only the mentioned files, as they are.

For CD driver I use a driver called vide-cdd.sys, capable to work with almost all the IDE CD devices:
 

Acer Peripherals vide-cdd.sys    10.9 KB

You will find this fine program here: http://www.acerperipherals.com/ss_download/apicd214.exe

Unpack the zipped file (full with other files) and copy the driver as is in the floppy.

If your CD device will not work after the reboot, don't worry because your hardware configuration isn't correct or your CD is SCSI. If your CD device don't work go in this very fine site and search the universal CD drivers: http://www.bootdisk.com/. But in 99% vide-cdd.sys works well.

I used for compression programs an old pkzip / pkunzip version. You can find these fine SHAREWARE (but freely usable for not commercial uses) compression programs here: http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~chriso/techno/index.html.

Unpack the zipped file and copy only pkzip.exe and pkunzip.exe in the floppy.

For secondary programs I chose two graphic programs as example.
You can find these fine FREEWARE secondary (zipped) bricks here:

ombra : http://www.enet.it/hpg/ew/rick.htm
showjpg : http://www.pictview.com/showjpg.htm

Don't unpack them. Put them in the floppy as they are.

That's all. The rest of the work is made by these config.sys, autoexec.bat, start.bat and findramd.bat:

config.sys:
device=a:\himem.sys
device=a:\ramdrive.sys 8192 /e
device=a:\vide-cdd.sys / d:ananas /L:US /P:1F0,14 /P:170,15 /P:1E8,12 /P:168,10

autoexec.bat:
a:\mscdex.exe / d:ananas /M:10
a:\mouse.exe

start.bat:
a:\pkunzip *.zip  %1:
set comspec=%1:\ command.com
%1:
%1:\dosshell.exe

findramd.bat
@echo off
echo ***** DR-DOS: type the drive letter of the volume called "VDISK".        ****
echo ***** MS-DOS: type the drive letter of the volume called "MS-RAMDRIVE". ****
echo ***** Letters before ramdisk: HARD DISKS - After ramdisk: may be CD-ROM ****
vol c:
vol d:
vol e:
vol f:
vol g:
vol h:
echo ****************************************************************************

Copy and paste these files using notepad. Save them, with the name above, directly in the floppy.

Now put the floppy in the computer and turn on it. When the operating system is loaded, type findramd at the prompt and read where is the ramdisk (if you don't find it probably himem.sys or ramdrive.sys are damaged, or you have made a mistake with the copy & paste of config.sys or findramd.bat). Then type start with the ramdisk letter. For example start d. That's all for your first experiment!

I invite you to make at home many other versions with many other bricks to give to the children at school the right version.

MS-DOS SECOND VERSION

In this second version I invite you to study other little DOS bricks  For example change the two graphic programs with pictview, due to the size: zipped is 105 KB!

You can download this fine Freeware program from the site http://www.pictview.com/pictview.zip.

Change the initial configuration to see if it is possible to give to the children an assembled operative system with a larger portability. For example, try to change Dosshell with Desktop. You can download this fine Freeware DOS GUI from the webpage
http://wwwisg.cs.uni-magdeburg.de/~fritter/Desktop.html.

Change the big Microsoft mouse driver with cutemouse (from version 1.8 the two old drivers for PS/2 and serial mice are unified). You can find this fine Freeware driver in this webpage: http://cutemouse.sourcforge.net. Unpack it in Windows and put the driver in your language, as it is, directly in the floppy.
Please, look at this important educative particular:
 

MICROSOFT MS-DOS mouse driver mouse.exe 107 KB (mouse.lan 3.82 KB can be omitted)

Nagy Daniel    mouse driver ctmouse.exe 4.65 KB !!!

Invite your children to think about these interesting paradoxes: a billion dollar machine like Microsoft erased by Nagy Daniel (and Arkady V.Belousov :-)

These are the config.sys and the autoexec.bat files for this floppy configuration:

config.sys:
device=a:\himem.sys
device=a:\ramdrive.sys 8192 /e
device=a:\vide-cdd.sys /d:ananas /L:US /P:1F0,14 /P:170,15 /P:1E8,12 /P:168,10

autoexec.bat:
a:\mscdex.exe /d:ananas /M:10
a:\ctmouse.exe

From this version findramd.bat is included in the following start.bat I wrote to add a bit of portability to the children's OS.

start.bat:
@echo off
if not "%1"=="" goto start
echo ***** DR-DOS: type the drive letter of the volume called "VDISK".         ****
echo ***** MS-DOS: type the drive letter of the volume called "MS-RAMDRIVE".   ****
echo ***** Letters before RAM DISK: HARD DISKS - After RAM DISK: may be CD-ROM ****
vol c:
vol d:
vol e:
vol f:
vol g:
vol h:
echo *****************************************************************************
goto end
:start
md %1:\dsk2
md %1:\dsk2\temp
md %1:\dsk2\graphic
rem insert here other directories
copy a:\*.*  %1:\dsk2
set comspec=%1:\dsk2\command.com
set path=%1:\dsk2;%1:\dsk2\arachne
set temp=%1:\dsk2\temp
%1:
pkunzip pictview.zip %1:\dsk2\graphic
rem insert here other zip programs with the destination directory
rem as "pkunzip x.zip %1:\dsk2\directory where to unzip x.zip"
pkunzip dsk2-eng.zip
%1:\
cd dsk2\desktop2
install.bat
:end

Use: start [x]
Type start to know the ramdisk letter, and start with the ramdisk letter only (for example: start c) to install the programs in ramdisk.

In this way the operating system runs ONLY inside the directory dsk2, without to change any data in your Pc if you however make an error installing it in an hard disk.
You also can use this "sleeping" operating system in your hard disk calling it with an easy bootable floppy, with this line in the floppy config.sys:

However, you must don't have a directory called dsk2 in your hard disk...

You can try this configuration with another GUI. For example, Seal. You can find the fine Seal DOS GUI here: http://seal.pmad.net/.
Try it in other school experiments!
 

MS-DOS THIRD VERSION: HOW MANY BRICKS WE NEED FOR A COMPUTER ?

Few. Try this configuration:
 

boot files command.com  93.9 KB io.sys   209 KB msdos.sys   0 Bytes drivers himem.sys  32.5 KB ramdrive.sys  12.4 KB ctmouse.exe  4.65 KB mscdex.exe  24.8 KB vide-cdd.sys  10.9 KB

principal programs dc.com     47.9 KB dc.doc     3.16 KB dc.txt     3.09 KB dc.ext   114 Bytes dc.mnu   225 Bytes start.bat   xxx Bytes

compression programs pkzip.exe  41.1 KB pkunzip.exe  28.6 KB secondary programs disp189a.zip   722 KB ... ...

As you can see I changed edit and dosshell with dc, and the graphic brick pictview with display (disp189a.zip) capable to show also things like mpeg and avi.
You can find these fine FREEWARE programs here:

dc : http://members.home.net/rlgreen2/fileman2.htm
display : http://www.go.dlr.de/fresh/pc/src/misc/disp189a.zip

I added dc in principal programs (instead of a zipped file in secondary program) only to show you better the change. Put it freely in zipped form.
However, if ramdisk don't start, it is better to have an editor and a file manager unzipped in the floppy disk, like dc.
Don't forget to use the good dc internal editor when you have installed dc on the floppy.

And now, let's talk about Display: use version 1.89a if you have old computers and versions from 1.9 to above if you have new computers. Infact Display from 1.9 supports only VESA (it's better VESA 2.0 minimum). Because the universal VESA driver is big for a floppy, if you have a 486 or version 1.9 gives you some problems, use version 1.89a.

You can find Display latest version in this fine site: http://fn2.freenet.edmonton.ab.ca/~crnelson/display.html.

Try it with a mpeg1 audio/video that can be downloaded in a single floppy from the site http://www.uakom.sk/multimedia/mpeg. With it you can see also movies or educationals mpeg CD.

I think this is a good configuration for the schools but Dos Controller (dc), the File Manager, is not graphic and has a big problem: I chose it because it was very small, but it don't read the CD driver... So, probably you will change it with others.
 

OTHER VERSIONS

After this third version I assembled many other versions. Not all the versions are interesting for children (they are used only by myself...). So I'll wait a bit before to show you something else.
As you can see you can do all the assembles you desire (or you need) for your course.
 

EXAMPLE: A VERSION FOR YOUNG WRITERS You need only a keyboard driver, a good professional editor, and a compression software to storage children's work directly in the same floppy disk of the operating system. Standard internal keyboard map is only American. If you are Finnish, Greek, Japanese, etc. you need to install a keyboard driver map to give at the characters on your keyboard the same output on the screen. In Microsoft MS-DOS these files are: keyb.com, keyboard.sys or keybrd2.sys, country.sys, mode.com and display.sys. But not all the languages are included. So you must find yourself your keyboard driver in internet. If you are lucky you can find an editor with all the drivers included (usually this happens with the languages written by ideograms). You will find a lot of informations on how to install all these bricks using the help DOS command. Please note this very nice Microsoft paradox for your lesson: keyb.com is a driver (loaded in autoexec.bat), keyboard.sys or keybrd2.sys not! Microsoft has inverted the extensions: if you try to load keyboard.sys or keybrd2.sys like drivers, the computer goes down!!! If you make an orthographic debug of your work, you need an ortographic debugger working in your language (and not only in english), or debug will became impossible or full of errors. This happens with many other editor functions too. In this case you must search an editor written in your language, and this may be very difficult for some nations, especially for some rare languages. If you need software in your language, you can go in this fine site: http://www.vada.nl/softtaal.htm. THE FREEWARE DOS EDITOR LANGUAGE TABLE LANGUAGE NAME WEB-ADDRESS Dutch French ... editV edit ... http://www.xs4all.nl/~ferguson/dosedit.html http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/gdm/gsoft.htm ... If you need a Japanese or a Chinese editor for DOS try two not freeware but freely usable editors from this fine site: http://www.njstar.com/. The world of the DOS editors is not my preferred argument. So feel free to help me!!! If you can use the American keyboard and the english language all it's easy and without drivers to add. I council you for the American keyboard and the english language this little brick (a bit difficult...):   Craig Hessel ezedit.com    4.00 KB You will find this fine editor here: http://www.geocities.com/craig_hessel (at the end of the page) Enjoy.

 

CONTINUE TO TREASURE

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