Chapter 1
HOW
TO USE MS-DOS
If
an
error
occurs while your computer is
under
the
control of
MS-DOS,
the
screen displays one of
the
error messages
listed
in
Part
6.
Other
error
messages come from application programs. Check
the
instructions of those programs
for
explanations.
Entering
a
Command
You
can
enter
a command whenever
the
screen displays
the
sys-
tem
prompt. The command may have a
maximum
of 127 charac-
ters, including
any
combination of uppercase or lowercase letters.
End
each command by pressing
[ENTER
I.
For example, type:
cIs
[ENTER
I
and
MS-DOS
executes
the
CLS
command,
which
clears
the
screen
and
displays
the
system prompt.
Executing
a
Program
You
can
also execute a
program
(such
as
the
BASIC
language
application
supplied
on
your
system
diskette)
at
the
system
prompt.
If
an
entry
is not a recognized command, MS-DOS com-
pares
it
with
the
program
names
in
the
current
directory.
If
it
finds a
match,
MS-DOS loads
and
runs
the
program. Otherwise,
the
screen displays
an
error message. For example, type:
bas
i c I
ENTER
1
to load BASIC.
Editing
and
Special
Keys
Although
you
must
be exact when
entering
commands, MS-DOS
makes
correcting mistyped entries easy.
Rather
than
having to
retype
an
entire
command due to one error, MS-DOS provides
several special
editing
functions.
You
can
also
use
these same
editing
functions to change a pre-
vious command
and
reuse it.
1
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