Date: Thu, 07 Apr 1994 14:29:32 -0600 (MDT) From: "Rob Slade, Ed. DECrypt & ComNet, VARUG rep, 604-984-4067" Subject: "The Little DOS 6 Book" by Nelson BKLTLDOS.RVW 940103 PeachPit 2414 6th St. Berkeley, CA 94710 510-548-4393 fax: 510-548-5991 800-283-9444 tbooth@peachpit.mhs.compuserve.com "The Little DOS 6 Book", Nelson, 1993, 1-56609-056-3, U$13.00/C$18.00 For those that need an introduction to DOS that will take them up to the intermediate level, this is a good choice. It contains both an introduction to DOS and a command reference. It goes beyond the cartoonish "beginning DOS" books that used to come with PC-DOS, but is not as formidable as the full documentation or the DOS "bibles". One potential objection might be that the book concentrates very heavily on DOSSHELL. While command line options are given at every point, the shell and its interface are given priority, and most of the book deals with DOS through the shell. If you want to learn the command line interface, you will get the basic information here, but will likely have to do a lot of practice to make up for the lack of examples. The organization is generally good, and useful for referencing topics by subject. Some of the organization is a bit odd: the "Basic Basics" chapter discusses floppy disks, the two physical sizes, some safety tips about magnets and even discusses how to insert them in the drives. The discussion does not mention the two formats: that is explained in chapter six (for which there is no pointer in chapter one) and even there, the book relies on the presence or absence of hub rings to distinguish high density 5-1/4" diskettes. (Some double density disks don't have hub rings either: the most dependable test is that high density media is slightly less opaque, and you can faintly see a nearby bare light bulb, or fluorescent tube, through a high density disk.) The book has a fair number of useful tips, but misses a great many. As only one example, the "IS" switch on the DIR command has rendered the WHEREIS and SEEK utilities obsolete. This is a very desirable function, and one that can save users a lot of time in finding misplaced files. While the switch itself is mentioned, there is no discussion of this use. A reasonable introduction for the intelligent beginner who wants to begin to actually use the operating system--and at a reasonable price. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKLTLDOS.RVW 940103 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '95, Toronto, ON, March, 1995, contact: rulag@decus.ca