Operating environment

Shell program surrounding the Disk Operating System (DOS) of a personal computer. It turns the display into a desk-top that is basically a menu from which one selects and runs PC applications. A shell program is a software package with an integration capability. This is created when the resident operating system and application programs are surrounded with a superimposed "shell" of command structures and menus. Microsoft Windows, Linux, and IBM's OS/2, different examples of operating environments, do away with the DOS prompt. An alternative operating environment allows switching of programs, windowing, and cut-and-paste capabilities. Windowing is the capability to accommodate more than one program if the accountant wants the main memory partitioned to handle the programs. For each program in memory, a separate window is displayed on the screen.

In computing, an operating environment is the environment in which users run application software, whether by a command-line interface (such as in MS-DOS or the Unix shell) or a graphical user interface (such as in the Macintosh operating system or a web browser).

An operating environment is usually not a full operating system but is a form of middleware that rests between the OS and the application. For example, the first version of Microsoft Windows, Windows 1.0, was not a full operating system, but a GUI laid over DOS albeit with an API of its own. Similarly, the IBM U2 system operates on both Unix/Linux and Windows NT.

Some operating environments for programming purposes are referred as programming environment; e.g., "UNIX programming environment" for shell in unix.

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