[Ham-Computers] DOS file size limit

[Hsu, Aaron]

I honestly don't remember if there was a size limit with the TYPE command,
but I do remember using it quite often on files that were larger than 64K.
Now you've got me thinking if I saw the entire contents of the files I was
viewing!  I'll have to do some playing around with the TYPE command to see
what the limitations are, if any.

The EDIT.COM that shipped with MS-DOS 5.x and 6.x were limited to 64K.  This
is due to the structure of .COM files...if I remember my Assembly
programming correctly, .COM formats are limited to a 64K program space and
64K data space.  The 64K data space is what EDIT would use to load the file
being edited.  Starting with Win95, EDIT wasn't limited by filesize (at
least as large as the files I've edited) as it uses a different memory
model.

It's possible to write a really small executable program that reads in a
file one byte at a time and outputs it to the screen without any filesize
limitations (except DOS' limitations).  A few years ago, I could probably
write it for you, but I haven't written anything in years.  I'll post what I
find out about TYPE when I can.

73,

  - Aaron Hsu, NN6O (ex-KD6DAE)
    {nn6o}@arrl.net
    {athsu}@unistudios.com
    No-QRO Int'l #1,000,006
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