DOS a Programming language, or not?

blastman

blastman

blastman

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Hey all,

I was at a interveiw today, and when i was asked the question "what programming language's do you know?"

I replied "well i have just starting using VB.net but my baby has got to be DOS"

The interviewer then said "Come on, DOS isn't really a language is it?"

This confused me as i mainly use it to write batch files and such. A Batch file is a executable so the code in them must be a language.

I am i right or is the interviewer??
 
Nobody would refer to Windows batch scripting as writing in DOS, just like nobody would refer to Linux scripting that way as writing in Bash. I'd personally refer to both as shell scripting.

"well i have just starting using VB.net but my baby has got to be Windows shell scripting"
 
What's the next step from XP batch scripting? I'm finding I'm hitting the limits in a few things I've been doing and need a bit more power.

Perl? PHP? MS Powershell?

Mainly just manipulating text files and image files, directories and user input.
 
I'd most certainly agree with SiriusB, Perl is a good scripting language. It's particularly suited to processing files, string searching etc. Well worth learning. Or if you want to use UNIX scripting stuff on Windows I think cygwin might be worth a look.

Also heard that Python is worth a look though I know little about that.

Wouldn't it be good if Windows came with the same sort of scripting functionality that Linux/Unix does?

Jim
 
JIMA said:
I'd most certainly agree with SiriusB, Perl is a good scripting language. It's particularly suited to processing files, string searching etc. Well worth learning. Or if you want to use UNIX scripting stuff on Windows I think cygwin might be worth a look.

Also heard that Python is worth a look though I know little about that.

Wouldn't it be good if Windows came with the same sort of scripting functionality that Linux/Unix does?

Jim
Click to expand...

Isn't this the sort of the MS Powershell is supposed to be (an MS 'Bash' if you will)
 
TBH, am a senior dev at a software house and if i sat in at your interview and you said DOS as a programming language, i would **** myself laugthing and not give you a job
 
DOS is an OS, the answer's in the name - Disk Operating System, it would be like saying I write applications in Windows XP. It is a platform not a programming language. Anyway, unless you have a very old PC running MSDOS 6.22 then you are not even creating batch scripts in DOS, you will be using the Windows command line interface, which is not DOS.

Sorry but the answer you gave showed a fundamental misunderstanding in operating systems and programming languages.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
What is it then, an executable script? The scripting engine compiles it and executes it. When you chmod +x something what are you doing to it other than flagging it as executable?
Click to expand...

Not quite, its interpreted not compiled. It's the interpreter that is executable and interprets the script. Indeed.
 
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