Re: [Freedos-user] Apropos and Whatis
Greetings, Folks. Ralf > First time I hear about those programs, and they are not something elementary to (Free)DOS, Jiri > All this is essentially for people who already know what's there or what should be there, not really for novices. I respectfully disagree. -smile- The first thing a new user will see when FreeDOS boots, is the message "Type HELP to get support on commands and navigation". When one types HELP, the first line of the Main Help page says "For information on using Help, press F1...". When F1 is pressed, the How to use the FreeDOS Help page is displayed, and this pages mentions WHATIS and APROPOS. So after learning the HELP command, the next two commands a new user will learn are WHATIS and APROPOS. And they don't work! It gets even worse: the same Help page also mentions FASTHELP, FDHELP, and FSUITE04. And these don't work either! Now for an experienced user this is not a big issue, I agree, but for a new user this might just be enough to quit and never look a FreeDOS again. And that would be a shame. To be sure, I consider myself an experienced user, but when I dir into FDOS\BIN and see those 316 different entries, there's a whole lot of software in there that absolutely don't know about. A simple WHATIS CWSDSTUB would make my life much easier. Obviously, I could write a WHATIS.BAT myself, and store it in FDOS\LINKS, which is in the path. Something like: @if exist \FDOS\APPINFO\%1.LSM HEAD -N 5 \FDOS\APPINFO\%1.LSM Not so pretty, but it works, and it's only 62 bytes. But my point is, this is mentioned in the Help pages, so these programs did once exist, and I can't image why someone would remove them purposefully. In other words, I think this is a little bug, and if needed, I can download an investigate earlier versions and see if I can find these programs and add them, but that would only solve *my* problem, and so I felt it was worth mentioning. Take care, Simon -- Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] Apropos and Whatis
Greetings, Folks. One of the things I really like about FreeDOS 1.2 is the incredible Help browser: a perfect way to browse through the documentation, and, in my opinion, much better then the man-pages in Linux. In "How to use the FreeDOS help" I found a reference to an Apropos command, and a Whatis command, which seemed very helpful in trying to find out what FreeDOS has to offer. However, these commands are not available in either BASE or FULL installation, FDIMPLES doesn't mention them, and I can't find them in the Packages. So the question is: am I doing something wrong, and, if not, how do I add these commands to my system? Take care, Simon -- Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
Re: [Freedos-user] FreeDOS 1.2 Codename?
Greetings, Folks. Eric, Jim - good to meet! Eric - I mostly use names within volume labels, which have the full 11 characters, but you're right, its probably better to stick to 8 characters, to allow for folder- and file names. Nice list, though, most of them actually do make some sense. -smile- I named 1.2 RC1 "Heaven" so I could tell my wife "I've been in heaven all day long..." LOL Jim - I'd love to read more about the history of FreeDOS, and I'll keep an extra eye on your blog next week. As one who can still remember booting up PC-DOS 1.0 from a 5.25 inch floppy, you're bringing back so many wonderful memories... -smile- That said, and with all due respect, I would like to urge you to reconsider and select a nice name for FreeDOS 1.2. Trying not to get too philosophical, but naming things is a somewhat magical or perhaps, even divine form of act; an expression of recognition of individuality, so to speak, and I dare say, FreeDOS 1.2 *deserves* to be recognized. So, for magic's sake, give the kid a name! -smile- Take care, Simon -- Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
[Freedos-user] FreeDOS 1.2 Codename?
Greetings, Folks. A simple question, if I may: does FreeDOS 1.2 have a codename? Wiki tells me all versions uptil 0.8 had codenames, but from then on, none! I really like things having names, so right now I am using MINNESOTA for FreeDOS 1.2 (also testing REDMOND -smile-) but I gladly switch to another name is there is one. Thanks in advance, Take care, Simon -- Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot ___ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
