4DOS is a

command-line interpreter A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

by JP Software, designed to replace the default command interpreter

COMMAND.COM 





COMMAND.COM is the default command-line interpreter for MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me. In the case of DOS, it is the default user interface as well. It has an additional role as the usual first program run after boot (init proc ...

Microsoft DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...

. It was written by Rex C. Conn and Tom Rawson and first released in 1989. Compared to the default, it has a large number of enhancements. 4OS2 and 4NT are similar products that replace cmd.exe in

OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 r ...

and

Windows NT Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system. The first version of Win ...

respectively.

Overview

4DOS is most often used as a command-line replacement for the following operating systems: * command-line:

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few o ...

, IBM PC DOS,

DR-DOS DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS- ...

. * graphical:

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, it is the successor to Windows 95, and was released to ...

, Windows 98SE. Since Windows NT and Windows 2000 includes both COMMAND.COM and cmd.exe, 4DOS and 4NT and derivatives can both be installed. Earlier versions of 4OS2 can be run under Windows NT, and OS/2 can run the two DOS and Windows NT shells, all three can be used on Windows NT-type machines and OS/2 multiple boot machines. Among the many commands, statements and functions in 4DOS and lacking in MS-DOS/Windows 95-98 COMMAND.COM are reading keyboard input and a simpler method of working with colors of screen and text. The default file extension for 4DOS scripts is .btm. A graphical version of 4DOS, 4OS2, and 4NT, called Take Command, was released with a feature set corresponding to version 4DOS 5.5, 4OS2, and 4NT 2.5 and updated after this. Development on this line stopped with the corresponding text mode versions. There was a graphical program Take Command/16, for Windows 3.1. 4OS2 is a similar replacement for IBM's

command interpreter. This was first released at the same time as 4DOS version 4, and has a similar feature set. Like 4DOS, this is released as open source. It appeared in the feature set of 2011's eComStation 2.10, in the freeware os2free project, and is included with

ArcaOS ArcaOS is an operating system based on OS/2, developed and marketed by Arca Noae, LLC under license from IBM. It was codenamed Blue Lion during its development. It builds on OS/2 Warp 4.52 by adding support for new hardware, fixing defects and li ...

. 4NT was first released as ''4DOS for Windows NT'' (versions 1.x, 2.x), but became 4NT until the restructure after version 8. The program is a recompilation of 4OS2, and continues to have features of OS/2's command processor (cmd.exe), such as running

REXX Rexx (Restructured Extended Executor) is a programming language that can be interpreted or compiled. It was developed at IBM by Mike Cowlishaw. It is a structured, high-level programming language designed for ease of learning and reading. P ...

scripts, and EXTPROC support. A corresponding '' Take Command/32'' exists for this, version 1 corresponding to 4NT 2.5. 4NT and Take Command/32 were released in both

ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...

(Windows 9x) and

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

(Windows NT) forms, with the ANSI version dropped at version 5. A new Win32 program Tabbed Command Interface (TCI), was released at the time of 4NT version 7. This program allowed one to attach (thereby reducing screen clutter) and detach tabbed consoles to a single window. This program requires

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...

or later. A new version of Take Command extends the original Tabbed Command Interface, expanded with extra windows to allow input to be composed, to graphically navigate directories and files, and extra features. 4NT is bundled as Take Command Console. A light feature-reduced version of TCC is released as a free download. JP Software then released: * TC (full pack of TCI + TCC) * TCLE (TCI + TCC/LE) * TCC (just the command utility) * TCC/LE This has been released from versions 9 to 12.1, corresponding to the underlying 4NT/TCC version.

Features

4DOS features a number of enhancements compared to COMMAND.COM: * Additional commands * Extended functionality of existing commands * Extended batch file processing facilities * Improved command line editing, including filename completion and command history * Support for command aliases, also in scripts * Enhanced wildcards and the ability to filter by file sizes, date and time stamps, and other file characteristics * Extended syntax for redirection and piping * Context-specific help * Colored directory listings * Internal variables and variable functions * A

memory swapping In computer operating systems, memory paging is a memory management scheme by which a computer stores and retrieves data from secondary storage for use in main memory. In this scheme, the operating system retrieves data from secondary stor ...

mechanism that yielded more free

conventional memory In DOS memory management, conventional memory, also called base memory, is the first 640 kilobytes of the memory on IBM PC or compatible systems. It is the read-write memory directly addressable by the processor for use by the operating system ...

* An interactive debugger for batch files * A mechanism for creating, maintaining and displaying file descriptions * Configuration stored in an INI file * Support for the Windows

clipboard A clipboard is a thin, rigid board with a clip at the top for holding paper in place. A clipboard is typically used to support paper with one hand while writing on it with the other, especially when other writing surfaces are not available. The ...

History and current status

Originally distributed as

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

, 4DOS has been later released as unsupported

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the ...

. Currently, the source code is available under a modified

MIT License The MIT License is a permissive free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts only very limited restriction on reuse and has, therefore, high license comp ...

but it "may not be used in any commercial product without written permission from Rex C. Conn" and "may not be compiled for use on any operating system other than

FreeDOS FreeDOS (formerly Free-DOS and PD-DOS) is a free software operating system for IBM PC compatible computers. It intends to provide a complete MS-DOS-compatible environment for running legacy software and supporting embedded systems. FreeDOS can ...

" - so does not qualify as open source as defined by

Open Source Initiative The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the steward of the Open Source Definition, the set of rules that define open source software. It is a California public-benefit nonprofit corporation, with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. The organization wa ...

. The last update by JP Software was version 7.50.130, released in August 2004. During its 15-year history, 4DOS underwent numerous updates; here are a few of the most significant.

NDOS

Some versions of the Norton Utilities for DOS included modified copies of 4DOS called NDOS. The last version of NDOS was bundled with Norton Utilities 8, and corresponded to 4DOS 4.03.

References

External links

JP Software
creator of 4DOS but no longer supports it. Currently sells similar ''Take Command'' for Windows.
Unofficial 4DOS support site with many batch examples, related documents and programs
*

*
4DOS 7.50 Reference Manual (2 MB PDF)
{{DEFAULTSORT:4dos 1988 software DOS software DOS command shells Windows command shells