Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)

#1

Post by csapdani » Mon, May 25, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)
the-eye.eu

Re: Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)

#2

Post by kirubakaran » Mon, May 25, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

Back in the day there were several computer books in the r/The Undocumented .*/ pattern. That was super cool and I loved them, as if you were being revealed secrets that no one else knows. In retrospect they were mostly about unstable apis best avoided.

Re: Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)

#3

Post by Exmoor » Mon, May 25, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

>Last updated on Friday, January 1, 1999.

This is a walk down memory lane, but not in a good way. I'm very, very glad to no longer have to remember anything about config.sys.

Re: Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)

#4

Post by paulryanrogers » Mon, May 25, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

Since very niche stuff there. Though it does bring back memories of using Alt+255 typed into directory names to hide our porn. (Thanks Joe!)

Re: Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)

#5

Post by snvzz » Mon, May 25, 2020, 4:32 PM UTC

Tangentially related: Freedos is close to 1.3 release, with a 1.3rc3 being prepared (partially out already).

Re: Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)

#6

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 25, 2020, 4:33 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)

#7

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Mon, May 25, 2020, 4:34 PM UTC

So how were these found? Today I guess I'd try running strings on the executable or maybe straight-up opening them in a debugger or disassembler (I assume command-line argument parsing is a very obvious, easy-ish to read block of code right at the start of the program), but I'm not sure how much of that was available (or at widely accessible, at least) back when DOS was a big deal (this list talks about DOS 2.x, which is 1983).

Re: Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)

#8

Post by sorokod » Mon, May 25, 2020, 4:35 PM UTC

:: is not quite a command, see here:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16632524/what-does-doubl...

Re: Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)

#9

Post by phoe-krk » Mon, May 25, 2020, 4:44 PM UTC

https://the-eye.eu/, as a whole, is a very unique community, with a lot of goodies stashed in its vaults.

Re: Shhh: The Undocumented DOS Commands (1999)

#10

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 25, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #7

So how were these found? Today I guess I'd try running strings on the executable or maybe straight-up opening them in a debugger or disassembler (I assume command-line argument parsing is a very obvious, easy-ish to read block of code right at the start of the program), but I'm not sure how much of that was available (or at widely accessible, at least) back when DOS was a big deal (this list talks about DOS 2.x, whic…

[deleted]