operating system A program which reads textual commands from
the user or from a file and executes them. Some commands may
be executed directly within the interpreter itself
(e.g. setting variables or control constructs), others may
cause it to load and execute other files.
Unix's command interpreters are known as
shells.
MS-DOS command interpreter into memory from file COMMAND.COM
that COMMAND.COM recognizes (e.g. COPY, DIR, PRN) are called
internal commands, in contrast to external commands which are
executable files.
(1995-03-16)