Some notes on the new 4Dos operating system. Jeffrey S. Morley, Sysop The Interconnect BBS (703) 827-5762 I have now installed the 4Dos operating system replacement on my PC at home, and have to say that this is the finest piece of ShareWare to come along since List (or possibly Qedit). 4Dos replaces the DOS command processor (Command.Com), adding a slew of new INTERNAL commands, and enhancing many of the old. The real advantage of 4Dos is that it can replace many of the TSR and utility programs that you currently have, with instant online help, and all DOS original commands supported. Why do I say that you can replace TSR and utility programs? Look at what it did for me... My old program: Replacement: ------------------- ------------------ Move.Com - Moves files Internal Move command across Dirs and Drives. including across drives. History or Ced Internal command line Command line edit/recall. edit/recall with options. KeyFake or Stakcey Keyfake capabilities built Fake keys to progs/batch. in - Driver in Config.Sys Sweep - Perform actions Internal Global command. across directories. DelBut - Deletes all "but" Internal Except command. specified filespec. (Works on ALL commands, not just DEL.) Various SDir Cdir... Internal enhanced DIR with directory programs. tons of options! CDD - changes directories Internal CDD command. and drives with one command. Various environment editors Internal ESet command to change environment. Tons of Xtree clones to Internal Select command to manage files. perform point/tag & shoot actions on files. PushDir/PopDir - to save Internal PushD and PopD the current directory in commands to do this. a batch, and restore at completion. All of the commands that I have listed as internal (including an interal version of LIST itself!) are truly internal. They execute instantly! Let's go on with a few goodies, before I start with the warnings/tips: * The batch file commands have been enhanced and added to. * Commands can be stacked on one command line with separator char. * ECHO can be turned off at bootup, eliminating @Echo in .BAT files. * Internal Stopwatch to time program execution. * Built in capability to add descriptions to directories. * Fantasic Alias command, much like CED's alias capabilities. * Enhanced ANSI.SYS included, with better speed and more functions. * 4Dos can be loaded into 64K of EMS memory (all but about 5K), or "disk swap" mode if you have no EMS. This means 4Dos takes up LESS memory than IBM/MS DOS 3.3, with lots of added capabilities. * So far, I have found 4Dos to be comletely at home on my system. I have a 20mhz 286 class machine, with 1 meg of EMS (not EEMS, but it's not required for 4Dos operation.) I am also running VFeature 2.7 to partition a 60meg drive - RLL'd (Omti) to 91meg. I have a Paradise bottom-of-the-line VGA card. There have been no conflicts with IBMBIO or IBMDOS, and all DOS commands function normaly (except those replaced with commands of the same name, and those work better!). Now the warnings/tips: Tip! 4Dos should NOT be the entry in the Comspec environment variable, as shelling out to another command processor in this case will eat up 57k of additional RAM memory. You should boot from 4Dos, and then be sure to set Command.Com as the Comspec entry. I will give an example of this in a second. This is needed becuase the second 4Dos command processor loaded via any kind of "shell" will load the entire 57K program into RAM. Shelling to Command.Com will solve this, although you won't be able to use the interal 4Dos commands while in the shell. You are supposed to be able to load the second 4Dos command processor in EMS as well, but I have found this method to be a tad touchy, probably because I use the rest of my EMS for caching. Use the following line in your Config.Sys if you have EMS: SHELL=C:\4DOS.COM /S:E /E:1024 /p or this one if you don't have EMS, and want to "disk swap" the program. Don't worry, it's still VERY fast: SHELL=C:\4DOS.COM /S:D /E:1024 /p Use the following line in your Autoexec.Bat: SET COMSPEC=C:\COMMAND.COM Now when you ALT-R out of QModem, you will be "shelling" to Command.Com (6K) instead of another copy of 4Dos (57k!). EXIT still returns you to your program, and back into the 4Dos environment. Tip! 4Dos has an internal LIST command, and this functions much like Vern Buerg's LIST.COM. But it ain't... You may want to use the ALIAS command to set up the following alias: ALIAS LIST=C:\UTIL\LIST.COM This will force 4Dos to use the loadable LIST.COM in your \UTIL directory instead of the internal version. Tip! The 4Dos internal DIR command defaults to sorting the directory by filename, so be careful of using things that are dependant on where in the directory the files are listed. An example of this would be PCopy's /F: /L: parmeters to start/stop at certain files. You can use the /OU parameter on the DIR command to get an unsorted listing. Tip! I suspect that the version of ANSI.SYS supplied with the program may have a few bugs, or conflicts with my hardware in some way. I can't consistantly get bright colors with the esc[1;xxm command, and some things using DOS/ANSI calls have come up in strange colors. Speed106.Com (a little gizmo to test your processor speed) now is in Cyan instead of the normal Yellow. I have gone back to using NAnsi or ZAnsi or even DOS' original ANSI.SYS. They work fine in the 4Dos environment though. My conclusion is that 4Dos may well be the answer for many of you who like the power you get using lots of TSR and utility programs, but don't want to give up the RAM or the time lost in loading them. The version I have been testing is 4Dos 2.0(a), and is available on my system as 4DOS20A.ZIP. Don't forget that you are REPLACING your command processor, so be sure to: 1) READ the documentation that comes with the program. I have given some brief examples of a setup for MY machine, but you may want/need to modify parameters. 2) Back-up your hard drive before installing. 3) Have a DOS boot disk handy in case you don't have the same success I did. Jeffrey S. Morley March 1, 1989