Ah “Computers”, now embedded into our daily life's even sometimes where we would least expect or desire them! The following are references and further learning along with my own exploration into this iceberg topic.
DOS standing for “Disk Operating System” was (and really still is) an operating system that keeps the computer user still pretty close to the machine while still providing many abstractions. It's not the first of its kind but is a perfect stepping stone in not only understanding the history of microcomputers but also a good middle grade entry-point into the world of computing internals. The most famous and perhaps most widely used DOS was “Microsoft DOS” the precursor to the now wildly popular windows. However there where competitors with varying levels of openness and compatibility.
Today FreeDOS is the cream of the crop in this area and has its own long history. Other mentions where DrDOS and ProDOS. But why DOS? what makes it a good entry-point for learners?
A note from the author, while I did grow up when DOS was in its prime, it was not actually my first operating system at home. Mac OS 6 holds that title, we will explore the merits of this revolutionary OS in another section. The reason this is mentioned is that DOS was not the first nor favorite of the author, however DOS similar to its predecessor CP/M provides a balance of usability and closeness to the machine it is running on, without trying to do to many things in the background or creating cognitive overload. It is generally single user, single threaded, single program by nature. A simple filesystem is used to locate a program and load it into memory for execution. During execution the OS takes a back seat only minding the most critical of operational abstractions, when the program is finished and hands control back (unloaded), DOS steps back in to assist the user in accomplishing the next task.
When learning a concept you want to provide a middle entry point to a concept, something that allows them to peer at the inner workings and to grasp at high level concepts. DOS simply provides this “smooth grade” to computer operation. It is a self-contained system perfect for learning.
Let’s get started with DOS and learning to operate and program a personal computer.
https://github.com/robhagemans/hoard-of-gwbasic
https://github.com/SuperIlu/DOjS
https://github.com/rxi/lovedos