Miscellaneous > Applications

Can They Do Anything On Their Own?

<< < (2/3) > >>

Centurian:
Hey,

Microsoft has had a few cool programs over the years. One that sticks in my mind is DosShell. It came out in MSDOS 4.01 and it was essentially the predecessor to windows. DosShell was basically a file manager (and a crappy one at that) that would also allow you to execute programs from it and when the program closed you came back to dosshell. Of course we could already do that easily with batch files but to put it in a program was at the time very cool. Back then a hot system was an 8088 with 640K (yes 655360 bytes of memory). DosShell used very little memory (about 80K) when it swapped out to run other programs. This meant that the average user who did not know alot about Dos could still use a computer with out much problems.

With regard to Basic it came out from both IBM and Microsoft. I don't know who had Basic first. Basic is however still a very active part of todays windows. Visual Basic has been used to create more programs than any other language. True alot of them were small crappy programs but none the less VB has been used for more than any other language. Today there are tons of off the wall versions of basic running around. Search the internet and you will find at least 30 different interpretters and about 20 different compilers all using the principles set forth in basic.

The first basic I ever used personally was gw-basic. It was an interpretted language so you could only run a program if you had the basic interpreter installed. Seems like the command line was gw-basic /r <program path and name> that would start gw-basic and auto run the program. Back then alot of people shared basic programs with each other. Some asked for money for their work but most shared program source freely. Either way if you had the source you could run the program because basic was on every computer running either IBM or Microsoft dos.
 
My first computer had 640K of memory and was an 8088. It had a CGA monitor. I paid almost $2000 for it and I was the envy of every one I knew. They all had 512K or 256K of mem and no one else I knew had a cga monitor. I rememebr compiling COBOL on that machine. When I had finished writing a program I would test run it to see if it worked properly. It took at least 30 minutes to compile a 2000 line program. So I would watch tv for a while and when it was done I would check it to see if it worked correctly then make any needed changes and compile again. Repeating the process until I got the program right.

Oh well I am rambling now better quit.

Later
Centurian

voidmain:

quote:Originally posted by Centurian:
Hey,

Microsoft has had a few cool programs over the years. One that sticks in my mind is DosShell. It came out in MSDOS 4.01 and it was essentially the predecessor to windows. DosShell was basically a file manager (and a crappy one at that) that would also allow you to execute programs from it and when the program closed you came back to dosshell.
--- End quote ---


C'mon Centurian, like everything else, DosShell was a day late and a dollar short. I used to use a menuing system called HDM (Hard Disk Menu) that blew DosShell away, and then after HDM came out I think another one called "ArcMenu" came out which was also very good and maybe a little easier to add apps. They both were FAR superior to DosShell.  

HDM also allowed you to password protect application execution (was that the first security in DOS?).  It stored the passwords in the HDM configuration file in encrypted form.  I broke the encryption scheme and wrote a program to read the config file and pull out all the passwords.  I sent a copy of the program to the guys that wrote HDM and they quickly changed their encryption.  Pretty low tech I know but I was proud of it at the time.

Centurian:

quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:


C'mon Centurian, like everything else, DosShell was a day late and a dollar short. I used to use a menuing system called HDM (Hard Disk Menu) that blew DosShell away, and then after HDM came out I think another one called "ArcMenu" came out which was also very good and maybe a little easier to add apps. They both were FAR superior to DosShell.  

HDM also allowed you to password protect application execution (was that the first security in DOS?).  It stored the passwords in the HDM configuration file in encrypted form.  I broke the encryption scheme and wrote a program to read the config file and pull out all the passwords.  I sent a copy of the program to the guys that wrote HDM and they quickly changed their encryption.  Pretty low tech I know but I was proud of it at the time.
--- End quote ---


Hey,

Hmmm that is quite interesting. I did not know of any menuing system prior to dosshell other than the ascii menu and batch file setup. In any case I do believe dosshell was the predecessor to windows. It started Microsoft down the path of "Make computers so easy an idiot can use them" phenominon. A path that Microsoft still follows today because they learned that the average user would rather accept crap than work at excellence.
Unfortunately that is the real reason that Microsoft is where it is today because "we", myself included, have allowed them to be by supporting Microsoft with our own efforts for an easy solution. For that reason more than any other Microsoft has gained ground. In the process "we" have created a monster.

Later
Centurian

voidmain:
You are right about how MS got where they are. It's easy to take the medicine when someone spoon feeds it to you.

I think DosShell came out as a free part of DOS "because" of HDM and other similar menuing programs.  HDM was originally a shareware program and sold for $35-$50. Ring any bells? Maybe this was the start of the tactics they still use today?  Incorporate an inferior product into their OS for free to wipe out any potential competition?

Centurian:
Hey,

Yes Dosshell was free beginning with MSDOS version 4.01. And here I was under the impression that they had come up with dosshell on their own. I guess I gave them too much credit.

There is a good chance that you are correct. They do practice incorporation of lessor products to weed out the competition. That may be when it began.

Later
Centurian

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page