Re: [Tutor] "hello, python world!"

[Michael Janssen]

On Mon, 22 Mar 2004, Magnus Lycka wrote:

> > On Saturday 20 March 2004 04:31, python_simpleton wrote:
> > > Q. On my first night trying to learn Python 2.3, I noticed when I click on
> > > the program it opens a window that lookes like DOS, is this because Python
> > > for Windows is based on python for DOS?(Read that in the instalation)
>
> No, it looks more or less like that also on computers that are completely
> void of Microsoft code. I guess the similarities with the DOS port has more
> to do with Windows inheriting some peculiarities from DOS in the way it
> handles C programming, which are invisible to the normal Python user.
>
> Microsoft has really managed to confuse people regarding the distinction
> between operating system and graphical user interface by using the "Windows"
> label in such a strange way, implying that the GUI is the operating system.
> This is just a smoke screen. Windows 3.x, 95, 98 and ME, are all graphcal
> shells for MS DOS bundled with some features that are typically placed in
> the actual operating system, such as limited ability for multi-tasking and
> extended memory management. Later versions of these Windows products where
> always bundled with DOS, but only used the Windows name, and Microsoft
> certainly didn't want people to associate them with DOS.

thanks for giving a little light into this "bundle", Magnus. I was
thinking the whole weekend what and where the differences between
MS-DOS and MS-Windows are...


> Microsoft NT (New Techology) was a completely new, and much more capable
> operating system for PCs, with a graphical user interface which was very
> similar to the DOS Windows shells. It's architectual roots came from a
> planned successor to the venerable VMS at Digital Equipment Corporation.
> See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows for info
> if you are interested in this technology theft etc.
>
> The command line interface (CMD.EXE) in all versions of NT (whether it's
> NT 3.x, NT 4, NT 5.0 a.k.a. Windows 2000 or NT 5.1 a.k.a. Windows XP) is
> *not* DOS. It can emulate DOS to some extent, but there are certainly a
> number of command line based programs in NT that never existed in DOS and
> won't run there, and many DOS programs can't run in the NT command line
> interface.
>
> Don't confuse the lack of a GUI with the primitive properties of DOS.

I really like this sentence ;-)


Michael