MS DOS Books

Running MS-DOS: Version 6.22 (Running series)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Started my professional computer career with this book. 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Best, easiest to understand and fun to read. This book more than any other laid the foundation for my understanding of computer science.

Thank you Mr. Van Wolverton!

P.S. Just buy it -- you will be glad you did.

Excellent Beginner Book 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This book is full of hands-on exercises, accurate examples, and a very good starting point for those of us who still have to deal with MS-DOS. Even though many claim that DOS is gone, it is alive an kicking within Windows NT, Windows 95, and Windows 98, and only true experts of DOS receive a full appreciation of a command line and automated tasks that DOS environment offers over GUI.

Fundamental but a little OLD! 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I was looking for a fundamental DOS book covering basic and network commands, scripts, and a reference. What I got was a book written before Windows 95 with no updated network Commands and a reference not formatted like a dictionary but more like a written chapter. It is a great first book for DOS but I wish I noticed the publish date.

Editorial Review:

This manual covers MS-DOS versions 3.3 to 6.2. It acts as an introduction and a reference to MS-DOS commands and provides a grounding in the basics of the MS-DOS operating system. The intention is to keep the book jargon-free and thorough.

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire

James Wallace, Jim Erickson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Hard Drive charts Gates's missteps as well as his successes: the failure of OS/2 and the embarrassing delays in bringing Windows to the marketplace; the highly publicized split with IBM, which then forged an alliance with Apple to battle Microsoft; the public relations fallout over various exploits of Gates; and the investigations by the Federal Trade Commission. Wallace and Erickson also examine the combative, often abrasive side of Gates's personality that has alienated many of Microsoft's rivals and even employees, and led to his being labeled "The Silicon Bully" by Business Month Magazine. They report:

In the early 80's, Microsoft's Multiplan lost out to Lotus 1-2-3 in the marketplace. According to one Microsoft programmer, a few of the key people working on DOS 2.0 had a saying at the time that "DOS isn't done until Lotus won't run." They managed to code a few hidden bugs into DOS 2.0 that caused Lotus 1-2-3 to breakdown when it was loaded. "There were as few as three or four people who knew this was being done," the employee said. He felt the highly competitive Gates was the ringleader.

The first two female executives hired at Microsoft in 1985 were recruited to meet federal affirmative action guidelines so that the company could qualify for a lucrative Air Force contract. One source says,"They would say, 'Well, let's hire two women because we can pay them half as much as we will have to pay a man, and we can give them all this other crap work to do because they are women.' That's directly out of Bill's mouth...." Gates treated one of these executives so badly that she asked to be transferred away from him.

Microsoft managers used the company's e-mail system to secretly spy on employee work habits. Only those employees who worked weekends could collect bonuses. In time word got out and some employees logged into their e-mail on weekends with a modem from home so it would appear they had come in.

DOS for Dummies

Dan Gookin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The book that changed the way computer books are written and marketed has come out in a third edition. By and large, it's the same as the previous edition (advances in MS-DOS have not been numerous), but there is some new information here. Further, DOS for Dummies remains an entertaining book and if you use DOS, it's the book you want to assist you.

The basic idea of this book is that you can identify a problem you're having with your computer, ranging from how to turn the thing on to how to back up only the files that have changed since the last backup. You can then turn to the relevant section--the table of contents is very detailed--read a few pages, carry out some procedure, and move on to the next problem. You'll find sections on hardware, file management, text editing, and software installation. Later chapters deal with troubleshooting.

The newest material in this release of DOS for Dummies deals with DOS 6.22 and the DOS-like shell that you can use under Windows 95 and Windows 98. For users of the latest versions of Windows, Gookin demonstrates some relevant procedures. But most of the coverage deals with DOS itself and programs that are designed to run under DOS. There's even stuff about WordStar here (it's a little-known fact of history that the Rosetta stone was written with WordStar).

DOS for Dummies is funny, too, in a wry sort of way. What kind of joke is appropriate to a section about parallel ports, anyway? The author manages to infuse practically every passage with humor. Other computer books should make an effort to take themselves less seriously. The verdict: if you're using DOS--and more of you are than the Windows people would have us believe--this book will provide you with valuable help. --David Wall

Assembly Language Step-by-step: Programming with DOS and Linux (with CD-ROM)

Jeff Duntemann

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The bestselling guide to assembly language-now updated and expanded to include coverage of Linux

This new edition of the bestselling guide to assembly programming now covers DOS and Linux! The Second Edition begins with a highly accessible overview of the internal operations of the Intel-based PC and systematically covers all the steps involved in writing, testing, and debugging assembly programs.

Expert author Jeff Duntemann then presents working example programs for both the DOS and Linux operating systems using the popular free assembler NASM. He also includes valuable information on how to use procedures and macros, plus rare explanations of assembly-level coding for Linux, all of which combine to offer a comprehensive look at the complexities of assembly programming for Intel processors.

Providing you with the foundation to create executable assembly language programs, this book:
* Explains how to use NASM-IDE, a simple program editor and assembly-oriented development environment
* Details the most used elements of the 86-family instruction set
* Teaches about DEBUG, the single most useful tool you have as an assembly language programmer
* Examines the operations that machine instructions force the CPU to perform
* Discusses the process of memory addressing
* Covers coding for Linux

The CD-ROM includes:
* Net-Wide Assembler (NASM) for both DOS and Linux
* NASM-IDE, a command shell and code editor for DOS
* ALINK, a free linker for DOS programming
* All program code examples from the book

Running Ms-DOS

Van Wolverton

List Price: $24.95 By: Microsoft Pr Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $0.26

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent book I salvaged from a yard sale. Even though it is old, it is the best book I have ever read on batch files. The command reference is about 5 times as detailed as MS-DOS help.

Editorial Review:

Expanded and updated to encompass all new features of DOS, version 6.0, and providing numerous new illustrations and screen shots, this definitive, best-selling reference includes easy-to-use information on previous versions of MS-DOS. Original.

A History of Computer Operating Systems: Unix, DOS, Lisa, Macintosh, Windows, Linux

Jon Watson

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Editorial Review:

Unix, DOS, Lisa, Macintosh, Windows, Linux

FreeDOS Kernel; An MS-DOS Emulator for Platform Independence and Embedded Systems Development

Pat Villani

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Excellent text from many perspectives. 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

The author really made the text flow by providing a high level view and then peeling back each layer to reveal the working of the kernel. In addition, he judiciously intermixed, text (historical, theoretical, practical, opinions) with diagrams, and code segments, which made the book easy to read, and concepts easy to follow.

The code was written in a clean and consistant style, amply annotated with comments which explain what the code does, as opposed to just paraphrasing it. A student or inexperienced "C" coder will see the practical uses of portability techniques, ifdef debugs, type defs, etc., which are frequently ignored in academic works.

Lastly, I'm glad the author resisted the current trend of dumping everything but the kitchen sink into a text just to see how much shelf space he could take up (most professionals are to busy for that nonsense). This is a nuts-and-bolts approach; what are the concepts, why is done, how is done, here's the code (and its all on a companion disk).

If your looking to learn about DOS, kernel implementations, or some good "C" code examples/idioms, this book is highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

Master operation system development. FreeDOS Kernel explains the construction and operation of Pat Villani's DOS-C - a highly portable, single threaded operating system. Written in C and with system calls similar to MS-DOS, the FreeDOS kernel provides an

Teach yourself the essentials of operating system design and development with this guide to FreeDOS -- a highly portable single threaded OS! You'll learn about kernel architecture, file systems, memory management, the API, and the command line interpreter. FreeDOS is an excellent source code base for experimenting.

New Perspectives on Microsoft MS-DOS Command Line - Comprehensive

Harry L. Phillips, Eric Skagerberg

List Price: $55.95 By: Course Technology Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $0.81

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

one step backwards to steps forward 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is the best step-by-step book on the DOS command line that I have ever come across. I have been trying to get a basic understanding of the DOS command line, and this book gave me what I was looking for. It also has a great amount of information about Processors and the differences between the Microsoft operating systems. I have tried to get a handle on DOS using the various quick learning books without much success. This was the first book that gave me what I was looking for. I was very intimidated by the DOS prompt before reading this book. After reading this book I feel very comfortable with the DOS prompt. I learned some of the DOS command line techniques, using the different switches and directories, it gave me a much greater understanding of what's behind the Windows Interface. The last three chapters go much further than I expected. It goes into the heart of networking and TCP\IP protocols. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in understanding the nuts and bolts of the DOS command line prompt.

Editorial Review:

Part of the New Perspectives Series, this text offers a case based, problem-solving approach to learning basic through advanced Microsoft DOS skills.

Writing MS-Dos Device Drivers

Robert S. Lai, Waite Group. The

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Best... And Last Book on This Topic 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful.

If you are even reading this review, it is probably because you, for one reason or another, need to write an MS-DOS device driver. I was in the same boat, and this book saved me.

I could not have done it without it. So little material remains about DOS device drivers.

This book provides detailed information on writting both character and block device drivers. Many examples are provided as this book guides you toward the development of more complex drivers.

Most of this book assumes that your are knowledgable in Assembly Language programming. However, the most useful section for me was a framework for developing device drivers in C.

It is for beginers 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 16 people found this review helpful.

This book just for beginers. Also, there is lot of assembly example instead of C language.

Should be the first device driver book you read... 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent book. Approaching device drivers via DOS is probably the best method to understanding device drivers in general. As to previous comments that the examples were written in assembly rather than C, this is a strength, not a weakness. Many drivers during the heyday of DOS were written in assembly. And while assembly is. admittedly, a difficult language in which to program, it does force you to stick your head into the hardware and keep it there (which is what device drivers are all about).
The only negative comment is that the book cannot be viewed on the Amazon website, particularly the table of contents and an excerpt.

Editorial Review:

This superb introduction to device drivers describes what device drivers do, how they interface with DOS, and provides examples and techniques for building a collection of device drivers that can be customized for individual use.

New Perspectives on Microsoft Windows 2000 MS-DOS Command Line, Brief, Windows XP Enhanced

Harry L. Phillips, Eric Skagerberg

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