Notes on DOS

CSCI 150

Some Notes on DOS Before Getting Started.

We will be running our Pascal programs using the DOS operating system. There are a few things you should know about moving around between disk drives and folders on DOS that will be helpful for you when working with your Pascal programs.

DOS (which runs under Windows) identifies each disk drive with a single letter of the alphabet followed by a colon. By convention the identifiers start with A:\ which always names the topmost (or leftmost) floppy drive of your machine. The identifiers C:\ through G:\ traditionally represent hard drives, zip drive and the like. These are the names you will be using to make reference to the drives in all of the lab machines. The K:\ and the P:\ are network drives. This means that you should save your work on either your own floppy disk A:\ or in your P:\ account. The K:\ drive has course materials on it.

When working in the DOS command window, you will see a prompt that looks something like this:

C:\programs>

The first character shows the name of the drive where you are currently working. The \programs tells you that you are working in the programs directory on the c: drive. If you want to change drives, you simply type the name of the drive that you want to switch to, followed by a colon. The monitor will show the following sequence:

C:\programs> d:

D:\>

If you want to change to a different folder on the current drive, you use the command, cd, (change directory) followed by a space and the path and name of the directory to which you want to move. A typical sequence would look like this:

D:\> cd \myFolder

D:\myFolder>

You are now currently working in the folder named "myFolder" on the D:\ drive. You may execute any executable files in that folder by simply typing the name of the file. For example, if you have a program called "hello.exe" located in "myFolder" on the D:\ drive, then you simply type "hello" and the program will be executed:

d:\myFolder> hello

Hello World!

d:\myFolder>