BASIC-DOS

A PCjs Retro-Programming Project

BASIC-DOS is on Twitter Project maintained by jeffpar

BASIC-DOS on an IBM PC XT with Two 80-Column Sessions

The machine below is an IBM PC XT (Model 5160) with a 4.77Mhz 8088, 640K of memory, a Color Display, two diskette drives, and a 10Mb hard disk. It boots the BASICDOS-360K-D80 diskette and runs two 80-column sessions, one above the other; use SHIFT-TAB to toggle focus. Since the machine has a hard disk, the boot sector first displays Press a key to start...; press any key (or wait 5 seconds) to boot from the diskette, or press Esc to boot from the hard disk instead.

IBM PC XT, 640Kb RAM, 10Mb Hard Disk, CGA

Color Display
Caps
Num
Scroll
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
F8
F9
F10
Esc
1 !
2 @
3 #
4 $
5 %
6 ^
7 &
8 *
9 (
0 )
- _
= +
Back
-
Num
Scroll
Tab
Q
W
E
R
T
Y
U
I
O
P
[ {
] }
↵
7
↑ 8
9
Ctrl
A
S
D
F
G
H
J
K
L
; :
' "
` ~
← 4
5
→ 6
+
Shift
\ |
Z
X
C
V
B
N
M
, <
. >
/ ?
Shift
PrtSc
1
↓ 2
3
Alt
Space
Caps
Ins 0
Del .
Esc
Tab
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
F8
F9
F10
Num
Scroll
1 !
2 @
3 #
4 $
5 %
6 ^
7 &
8 *
9 (
0 )
- _
= +
Back
-
+
Q
W
E
R
T
Y
U
I
O
P
[ {
] }
↵
7
↑ 8
9
A
S
D
F
G
H
J
K
L
; :
' "
` ~
← 4
5
→ 6
\ |
Z
X
C
V
B
N
M
, <
. >
/ ?
Shift
PrtSc
1
↓ 2
3
Ctrl
Shift
Alt
Space
Caps
Ins 0
Del .

This demo is also available on an IBM PC, an IBM PC AT, and a COMPAQ DeskPro 386.

The BASICDOS-360K-D80 diskette’s CONFIG.SYS defines two 80-column consoles, one above the other (16 rows on top and 9 rows on the bottom), each running its own copy of COMMAND.COM.

Both sessions are configured with borders, and a double-wide border indicates which session has keyboard focus. Use SHIFT-TAB to toggle focus.

CONFIG.SYS from the BASICDOS-360K-D80 Diskette

REM Demonstration of two 80-columns sessions
FILES=8
BUFFERS=4
REM SESSIONS=2
CONSOLE=CON:80,16,0,0,1
SHELL=COMMAND.COM PATH$="A:\;A:\BIN;A:\SAMPLES;A:\DEMOS"
CONSOLE=CON:80,9,0,16,1
SHELL=COMMAND.COM PATH$="A:\;A:\BIN;A:\SAMPLES;A:\DEMOS"

Copyright (c) 2020-2026 Jeff Parsons Released under MIT License