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so, I've long been afraid to refer to "that language you use in batch files and in the cmd shell" by name. It's embarrassing to admit that i don't know what it is called anymore.

The only term I've ever heard for it is "DOS" but I don't want to open myself up to responses like "DOS is an OS", or "DOS is 16bit and hasn't run on windows since '06", or "DOS uses command.com, but CMD is the VDM" or some such (not that this has actually happened, just social anxiety...).

So can someone clue me in on what the modern terminology for the language you put in MS .bat files is?

Frank Thomas
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2 Answers2

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According to Wikipedia and other sources, one can consider this "language" to be the command line interface, CLI, and is common in many different operating systems. For a more specific term, the same source suggests one can also call it the "command line interpreter."

This latter suggestion is more easily understood, in my opinion and would not necessarily require more explanation.

"I use the command line interpreter to run (insert program name here) with parameters," or "I created a batch file to run from the command line interpreter."

fred_dot_u
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Microsoft documentation seems to call cmd.exe language Command Shell or Windows Commands, as opposed to PowerShell or Windows Script (wscript/cscript) languages. In the older (MS-DOS) documentation, the language is referred to as Batch Commands.

I don't think the difference in names is intentional though. In my experience those names (Command Shell / Batch Commands) can be used interchangeably, and you need to specify the OS if you refer to a specific version of the language.

Dmitry Grigoryev
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