Wicker808's New Writeups

High (idea)

2001-09-21T17:54:19Z

Webster puts it nicely: Elevated in character or quality.

To be high, in modern parlance, is to be in an altered state of mind, usually by the influence of a substance. It is most commonly applied to the use of narcotics and marijuana, but can also be applied to opioids, hallucinogens (both synthetic and otherwise), and even alcohol, although this last use is unusual.

The use of this word should indicate that one has attained a plane of understanding elevated above that of the common, sober man. That is, one's outlook is clearer, one's powers of perception are greater, being unencumbered by the shadows of the mundane world. Obviously, "high" is not always an accurately applied term, unless eating a whole bag of Fritos and playing PlayStation for eight consecutive hours is said to be an "elevated character." Use of the word "high" in such a situation may be somewhat ironic in nature.

Some people are able to attain such an elevated character or quality without the use of a substance, and are said to be high on life.

Con (thing)

2001-09-20T18:22:37Z

CON is the console character device under MS-DOS and related operating systems, including all forms of Windows. CON is a special, reserved file name.

What this is means is that CON behaves in some ways like a file, but isn't. In particular, data may be written to and read from CON, but CON may not be deleted, created, or renamed. Because of the semantics of character devices, all files whose base name is CON, regardless of extension, are treated identically to CON.

Because of CON's status as a console device file, all data written to it will be output to the console, which is to say the screen (unless the meaning of the console has been changed with CTTY). Attempting to read data from this file will cause data to be taken from the keyboard (same exception applies).

CON has several interesting uses. Because it behaves like a file, it can operate as either the source or destination of the COPY command. Thus, the command COPY FOO.TXT CON will display the…

config.sys (thing)

2001-09-20T17:32:31Z

CONFIG.SYS, placed in the root directory of an MS-DOS boot drive, is the main system configuration file under MS-DOS and related operating systems.

CONFIG.SYS is executed by the DOS kernel, which is stored in IO.SYS, when the system boots. Each line is read, and specifies some configuration element and its setting. Each line is in the form name=value. The following list is not exhaustive.

DEVICE=path {param}: There may be any number of DEVICE lines in a CONFIG.SYS file. Each DEVICE line specifies the path of a device driver that is to be loaded, as well as any optional parameter to be passed to that device driver. Many device drivers come with DOS, including SETVER.EXE, HIMEM.SYS, and ANSI.SYS. Device drivers may indicate one or more character devices or one block device. More recent versions of DOS support an analogous DEVICEHIGH command that will load the driver into high memory.
SHELL=

…

REM (thing)

2001-09-20T17:04:06Z

REM is a command in the MS-DOS command interpreter frequently used in batch files. REM performs no action. The intent of this command is to supply remarks within the batch file that will be ignored by the computer, but visible to a programmer looking at the file. In effect, REM is batch language syntax for a comment. For example:

REM This line has no effect.

Any parameters to REM will be ignored. However, the exception to this rule is the /? parameter, which, in modern versions of DOS, will display a summary of the command. Therefore, one should not attempt to indicate a comment beginning with /?.

If REM is the first token on a line in DOS's CONFIG.SYS file, that line will be ignored. Therefore, REM also provides a commentary feature in that file. However, this functionality is only available since, I believe, DOS 5.0.

batch file (thing)

2001-09-20T16:56:26Z

A batch file is a script that executes under the MS-DOS command interpreter, typically having a .BAT extension. Batch files are just a list, or batch, or normal DOS commands, although when in this form they collectively make up what is called batch language. Batch files can be simple programs that can simplify or automate repetitive tasks. While not as powerful as a real scripting language, like sh, it is technically complete.

Some MS-DOS commands are designed to work specifically within batch files, although they may have some limited functionality from a normal command line. These commands include IF, FOR, GOTO, SHIFT, CALL, ECHO, and REM.

Unlike Unix shells, DOS, by default, will display each command in a batch file before it executes, as if it had been entered by a human. This functionality, which, while helpful for debugging a batch file, produces an ugly finished product, may be suspended by using the ECHO OFF command. Although a batch…

CTTY (thing)

2001-09-20T15:54:41Z

CTTY is a little-known and little-used command supported by MS-DOS and many versions of Windows, but not those based on the NT kernel.

CTTY stands for Change TTY. It allows the selection of an alternative device to be used for all future console I/O operations by the command interpreter. In other words, instead of reading commands from the keyboard and displaying output to the screen, commands will be read from the indicated device and output sent to same.

Using CTTY is somewhat like redirecting the input and output of all subsequent commands. However, CTTY is a dangerous command, which is probably why it was removed in recent operating systems. It is dangerous because, unlike redirection, the keyboard break is ignored; that is, control-C no longer operates. The only way to revert back to normal console operations after issuing a CTTY is for the new console to execute CTTY CON. Another difference between using CTTY and conventional…