Talk372

When your computer is off, it is just a plastic box with some metal parts, sand ( SiO2), Si, a battery (yes, a DC battery) and a few other odds and ends inside the box. When it is first turned on, nothing seems to happen for a few seconds while in fact a lot is going on with only a few volts of electricity applied to the devices inside. The first thing it does is to go through POST (power-on-self-test). POST makes sure your PC is in good health. When POST and a few other operations are done, your PC is ready to do things for you.

Now you are looking at the monitor of your PC, you open the MS word application, and start typing. What makes the computer show what you type is the "operating system" or the OS --- the interface between the user and the computer. It manages things for you so that your PC does the right thing. To do that, OS works with something called " BIOS" ( basic input/output system). These guys send data from one part of the computer to another. BIOS defines what an electrical signal means. The way the codes are written into BIOS makes your computer an IBM or HP etc. If your OS is not a good manager, your PC crashes often. You need to change your manager.

When Bill Gate was working with IBM, he pioneered the disk operating system or DOS ( known as PC DOS). Later on he founded Microsoft, PC DOS became MS DOS. Seemingly DOS is a small program, it can only take 16-bit information (or data) and can manage file names up to 8 characters.

Most of the PCs use window based OS ( there are others, such as UNIX and the LINUS). Your old Window 3.1 is based on DOS. In those days the harddrive was much less than 1GB. DOS worked well for what it was for. Starting from Window 95, 98, 2000 and NT, they have their own OS. These window OS can manage files with longer names ( more then 8 characters) and can take 32- bit data. It is common to have harddrive 40 to 100 GB in your modern PC. The expanded memory allows more complex OS to run. On the other hand, recent Windows also allow DOS to run within their " environment".

The situation is very much like Hong Kong. HK runs on the HK basic Law (akin to DOS). China runs on " Chinese Law" (akin to window 98). Chinese Law allows HK basic Law to function in HK, just like Window 98 allows DOS programs to run.

Since Widow 95 and higher use a more enabling OS, why do they allow DOS programs to run? The reason is that there are some old, but still functional, programs written for DOS around. It is convenient to just load them up and run them. For a computer user who just manages e-mail, surfs the web, fixes photos and listens to web radio, one would not likely to encounter any DOS applications. These applications are modern.

Those who may still use programs written for DOS would include Peter Tong, Bobby Chen, A Chai, Leepo Cheng, Walter Mok, Walter Tsui and Harold Soo (in my opinion). There may be others, but can't think of any at this moment. Some of the software developed to solve engineering/Physics problems may still be around to perform calculations and/or control machines. That is why I decided to run a Monte Carlo calculation in Window 98 with SULFNBK.EXE deleted. The deleted EXE file is just to manage DOS programs with file names longer than 8 characters. Monte Carlo simulations have been around for a long time, I wanted to see if an old and obscure Monte Carlo
program called " TRIM " ( now called TRIM 2000) has been upgraded to Window 98. It has. Safe as in church.

I believe I can safely report to the Lighters that we don't need to worry about having SULFNBK.EXE deleted. Mostly likely you don't need it. If you ever want it, you can either get it back using the website mentioned by James Koo, or I'll forward a copy to you. Alice Leung (Mrs. Leung Kun, C7) gave me a copy.

That is all I know about DOS. As for "don'ts", there are countless things I don't know about. I will not elaborate here.

Acknowledgement

I want to thank Chang Hon ( C 34) for the virus alert that got me into hot water. This predicament prompted me to learn more about PC OS. I learned a lot by reading the book entitled " How computers work" by Ron White ( Macmillan). I can get a copy to you, if so interested ( 329 pages, but the first 100 pages would get you on board). It is at a level that is readily understandable. I also acknowledge the teachings from discussions with graduate students, post-docs and colleagues.