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JavaScript and Dos- Jim Atkins
I’ve been scripting for a little over 13 years now. I started on an old IBM where you had to script in order for the machine to do anything useful. I had a DOS 1.1 hardbound book from IBM and the 51/4? inch disks to get the PC Jr to boot. The flavor of DOS I worked with was PC-DOS but
I’ve
also worked with others (MS, DR, etc.). I spent about a year upgrading
and coding on that box and finally upgraded to an IBM 8086. Remembering
back I recall that DOS batch files and knowing how to work with them
was mandatory if you wanted to go beyond having a glorified word
processor. DOS batch files where the blood and guts of getting the
computer to work for you and actually do some great stuff.
DOS was the system and the
different DOS programs is what made a computer fun to work with. Using
batch files and linking DOS system files you could build programs like
windowed file menus and a whole lot more. DOS had its limits but the
deeper you dug into it the more you could do. I spent a lot of the time
inside compiled programs fixing problems and just seeing how things
worked. I recall one program I used that gave you a split view inside a
program, one side was the machine code the other was the actual program
pointers. I didn’t understand all that I was looking at but I was
learning something I could use as long as I code, logic.
I understand that even the latest
PC OS has as its core the DOS structure I worked with 13 years ago. The
actual OS may be independent of DOS but if you go back to Windows For
Workgroups 1 and follow the progression of MS Windows you’ll see what I
mean. Even the earlier versions of DOS had the ability to link system
files and create libraries of frequently used system functions. A lot
of people had to work with, at that time, memory management and ways to
push the envelope on upper memory. Remember the old 640k barrier, and
then the upper, and then the extended memory. I’m not sure the 1024
barrier is conquered but instead it has been circumvented. That’s
another discussion.
Programming in JavaScript, to me,
is much like DOS in that I believe it will always be with us. It may
change form, like the addition of prototypes and the increasing use of
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), and the like. But, much like DOS
batch file scripting, the core is the same and revolves around logic.
Not the code logic but the programmer’s logic. I’m not a 'pretty' JS
coder. I usually try to clean up and shorten code but my philosophy is
that if works cross browser and does what you intend for it to do then
be happy. You can always strive for perfection but what you are aiming
for is functioning code that works as intended.
I’ve always said that the only
difference between programming languages is the syntax. Some languages
will have better libraries and flow more smoothly but at the end of the
day it’s the coder’s logic that makes the code work. I’ve worked with
basic, Fox Pro, Visual Fox Pro, Visual Basic, Java, and a few others,
and it always comes down to understanding the code flow. There are a
number of reference materials to guide you with syntax and available
libraries, classes, etc., but without logic you’ll be lost
The reason DOS batch files, and
DOS itself, helped me is that simple logic. Not simple in what it could
do though. You could actually write a complete and complex functioning
program using a stand-alone DOS batch file. With a series of them the
sky is the limit. And yet, there are only a few batch commands
available. Those commands, though, are powerful and are the core to
every programming language. IF this equals this go to there, for that
in this do the other, if the other is not there run this program. Etc.,
these are the fundamental building blocks of any programming language.
JavaScript, of course, has a lot
more to offer. Used primarily as a client-side scripting language in a
web browser, JavaScript is widely used and, I believe, will be
increasingly used as the client-side language of choice. It seems, as
time goes on, JavaScript becomes more powerful and has few of the
limitations it had in its earlier days. More sites are requiring
JavaScript be enabled and more site programmers are relying on
JavaScript for the grunt work to make it all happen. Just as DOS
enabled a computer to boot and operate JavaScript allows things to work
when that site page comes up in the browser. Even as ASP, PHP, and some
of the ‘other’ web languages, flex their muscles Javascripting is there
making it possible for the user to see those muscles bulge. This is why
JavaScript will continue to evolve to be a website’s DOS engine and the
blood and guts of getting a website to work for you and actually do
some great stuff.
Jim Atkins is owner/programmer of JBAtkins Consulting http://www.jbatkins.com
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