Extended partition

An additional MS-DOS partition; you can create one primary MS-DOS partition and one extended partition.

Extension

A suffix of up to three characters that can be added to a file name to better identify it.

External command

An MS-DOS command stored in a program file with the extension .COM or .EXE. MS-DOS must be able to find the program file to execute the command. See also Internal command.

File

A group of related pieces of information called records, or entries, stored together on a disk. Text files consist of words and sentences. Program files consist of code and are used by computers to interpret and carry out instructions.

Filename

A name of up to eight characters that MS-DOS uses to identify a file.

Floppy disk

See Diskette.

Format

To prepare a new disk (or an old one you want to reuse) so that it can store information. Formatting divides a disk into tracks and sectors and creates addressable locations on it.

Graphics

Lines, angles, curves, and other nonalphanumeric data.

GW-BASIC

Microsoft’s extended version of the Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. A programming language designed to be easy to use and understand.

Glossary 7