Dissecting DOS: A Code-Level Look at the DOS Operating System [Paperback]

Michael Podanoffsky (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 020162687X | ISBN-13: 978-0201626872 | Publication Date: December 10, 1994 | Edition: 1

The source code of MS-DOS is both secret and copyright-protected. Using the DOS work-alike RxDOS, created to emulate and parallel the commercial system, Dissecting DOS reveals for the first time the code-level operation of DOS. By studying the source code of RxDOS included on disk, readers will be able to understand MS-DOS's inner workings.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The source code of MS-DOS is both secret and copyright-protected, so, as a Windows and DOS programmer, you can't study the code and figure out how this operating system works. If you could study the code, you would be able to optimize your Windows and DOS programs.

Now there's Dissecting DOS, the first book to take programmers on a fantastic voyage through the code-level guts of MS-DOS. The book features the complete source code for the DOS work-alike operating system RxDOS, which emulates and parallels the commercial system. Dissecting DOS explains the architecture, command structure, and operation of DOS and uses the work-alike RxDOS to illustrate the source code controlling vital DOS actions, such as processing function calls, file redirection, disk compression, memory management and device drivers.

Dissecting DOS reveals the details of DOS:

• file processing
• memory allocation
• process management
• COMMAND.COM functions
• device redirection
• low level file allocation table (FAT) architecture.

The book features extensive innovative techniques and technical insights for Windows and DOS programmers, such as how your program can usurp the MS-DOS COMMAND.COM component and other functions to achieve optimum customization. The accompanying disk includes the entire source code for the MS-DOS workalike RxDOS. Readers can use actual RxDOS source code in their own programs to emulate DOS functions and features. Dissecting DOS reveals the inner secrets of MS-DOS that every PC programmer needs to know.

020162687XB04062001

About the Author

Michael Podanoffsky has been programming professionally for twenty years and currently develops object interfaces and database architectures for a major software publisher. He has written several articles for leading computer programming periodicals.

020162687XAB04062001

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (December 10, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020162687X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201626872
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #924,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book, Great support, April 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dissecting DOS: A Code-Level Look at the DOS Operating System (Paperback)

After my first review posted, I am very pleased to say that the author (Mike Padanoffsky) contacted me, and was *Extremely* helpful in fixing *any* complaints that I may have had on his book / software. And it chagrins me to say, that the retractant message that I thought I had posted never went up. So I shall do so again. The original one went sorta like this... "This book, barring a minor bug in one of the earlier editions is in my own opinion one of the *very* best books on re-entrant assembly code and on operating systems. In fact, I liked the OS well enough that I use it on a daily basis on my notebook. For any inquiring programmers, if you want to know HOW to write your own OS, this is one of the *most* essential books to have at your side. I cannot stress enough how well it is written and supported. Words just doesn't seem to do it justice." I am also reminded of the fact, that if it weren't for authors like Mike, some of us programmers would still be scratching our heads, saying "Now, how do I do this one???"

Great book. buy it. I highly recommend it... from one programmer to another.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So-So, July 8, 2002

By 

Rob (Bristol, CT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dissecting DOS: A Code-Level Look at the DOS Operating System (Paperback)

The book was pretty good with the information that it did give. Some of the programs that were discussed in the book were not on the disk like the book said they were. Alot was left out and not touched upon like they should have been. There should have been a short section on Device drivers, just to give a reader an overview that they do exist, and maybe a little on installable file systems. I bought this book because the code was written in Assembler. I probably should have bought FreeDos instead except that is was written in C. All the information that I could not find in this book I found in the Code for Free Dos.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great info source. Be patient if you want it for further use, August 31, 2000

By 

Stavros Versoglou (Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dissecting DOS: A Code-Level Look at the DOS Operating System (Paperback)

The book provides an indepth analysis of the way DOS works, contains invaluable information that you can find nowhere else. Nevertheless especially in the beginning I 've got the impression that bypasses -I admit that I'm not the most proficient assembly user and it can be my mistake- some funtamental elements very quickly. (I still try to find a way to list my files without using DOS interupts as the book doesn' t really explain what exactly interupt 52h/21h does and I 've not yet really understood how the accompanying program printcds work - written in C)