#ASCII:  Stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange."  It
is a standard format used by computers to store and transfer data.

See also BYTE.
#Asynchronous Communications Adapter:  A hardware device that provides serial
communications capabilities to communicate with other computers or devices
supporting the RS-232C communications standard.
#Batch File:  A file of Commands and Batch Subcommands to be executed when the
name of the batch file is entered.  The commands are executed as though they
were entered through the keyboard.  Batch files must have .BAT as the filename
extension.

For more information, see BAT-OVER in the OVERVIEW menu.
#Baud:  The rate at which information is transmitted through a communications
line.  Baud rates are expressed in bits per second.  As a rule of thumb, a baud
rate divided by ten equals characters per second.  For example, a baud rate of
300 is equivalent to 30 characters per second.
#Boot:  Means "Start the computer," or "Start DOS."
#Break:  Terminate the current operation.  Most DOS commands and programs can
be "broken" by holding down the CTRL key and pressing the BREAK key.  This is
also called a Control-Break.

Note:  On some computers, such as the TANDY 1000, the BREAK key is used alone
(without the CTRL key).
#Byte:  A unit of information the computer recognizes as a character.  One byte
is equivalent to one character (a letter, number, symbol or blank).  A byte is
composed of eight "bits."  A bit is a 0 or 1, signifying the on/off state of an
electronic circuit.  The 0 and 1 values of eight bits (2 to the eighth power)
result in 256 unique states, accounting for the 256 ASCII codes of the computer.
Bit is a contraction for BInary digiT.

See also ASCII.
#Chaining Commands:  The DOS feature called "piping" lets you chain commands or
programs together with automatic redirection of input and output.  The output of
the first command is used as the input to the chained command.  The "|" is used
to specify chaining.

For example, to produce a directory list sorted by filename, the SORT
command is chained to the DIR command, as in:

    DIR | SORT

When the above command is executed, the directory list produced by DIR is
passed as input to SORT which sorts the data and displays it.

See REDIRECTION for related information.  See PIPING in the ADVANCED menu for
detail usage information.
#Cluster:  One or more consecutive sectors of disk storage.  DOS keeps track of
files on disk by storing the locations of file clusters (the sectors where file
contents are stored) in a table.  This table is called the File Allocation
Table.  When DOS reads a file's information from disk, it searches the File
Allocation Table, finds the addresses of the clusters that contain the file's
information, and then reads the information from the appropriate clusters.

See also SECTOR and TRACK.
#Command Line:  The place on the screen where you enter a command.  The command
line begins with the DOS prompt "d>", where "d" is the drive letter of the
default drive.

See SYSTEM PROMPT, CURRENT LINE and RETAINED LINE for related information.
#Command Processor:  The COMMAND.COM file.  It contains the instructions needed
to activate DOS and make it usable.  It also contains the "internal" DOS
commands and the batch subcommand processor.  When DOS is started, the contents
of COMMAND.COM are loaded into memory.
#Concatenate Files:  To join two or more files into one file.  Files are
concatenated by the COPY command, using the "+" sign between the files to be
joined.

The following copies FILE1 and FILE2, and concatenates them in a new file,
FILE3.  The data from FILE1 is copied first to FILE3 and then the data from
FILE2 is added to the end:

    COPY FILE1+FILE2 FILE3
#Console:  The keyboard and screen are called the "console."  The computer user
interacts with the computer through the console.  The user communicates to the
computer through the keyboard and the computer uses the screen to display its
responses.
#Control-Break  (See Break)
#Current Directory:  The directory of a disk that DOS will use by default. Since
DOS lets you create multiple directories, you must indicate which directory you
wish to work with.  If you do not specify a file's directory in a DOS command,
the current directory is used by default.

The CHDIR (Change Directory) command changes the current directory.

See DIRECTORY PATH and FILESPEC for related information.
#Current Line:  The line on the screen where DOS commands and program names are
entered.  "Retained line" is a related term.  The current line is the current
command you are preparing for DOS, and the retained line is the previous command
that DOS has stored in memory.

See also RETAINED LINE.
