User:Rhinozz

I make a lot of QDOS/86-DOS pages, pirate far too many books for research purposes, and don't have FTP access.

Pages I Update
QDOS 0.10

QDOS 0.11

86-DOS 0.2 (currently researching - unfinished)

The rest of the 86-DOS pages (unfinished)

Misc. QDOS/86-DOS info

 * "Tim Paterson also told me that he, unfortunately, didn't keep a copy of QDOS or 86-DOS (I had asked him to share a copy :-)."
 * LucasB: "[Tim Paterson kept copies of source code listings though"]
 * Barry Watzman sold a collection of 86-DOS floppies in 2009
 * 5 floppies were sold
 * At least 1.00 was sold, and it was imaged but not dumped anywhere
 * The versions were probably 0.33, 0.34, 1.00, 1.25 (SCP OEM), and 2.00 (SCP OEM)
 * 0.33 and 0.34 were shipped by SCP
 * 86-DOS 0.3 is in the possession of BetaCollector, and was shipped
 * Less than 30 people ever saw 86-DOS 0.3, and less than 10 people are estimated to have ever seen QDOS 0.10
 * Version 0.2 and 0.3 have their boot sectors and BIOS at the end of their respective manuals
 * Microsoft "couldn't find" QDOS source code. However, they returned some pieces of Windows 95 source code later, hinting at them possibly having some of it
 * Internals of Cromemco disk
 * Disk Master was added later - not initially in 86-DOS
 * Version 0.42 changed directory entries from 16 to 32 bytes, and added a date timestamp
 * LST was a reserved name, the same as PRN.

Statements that need sources

 * LST, for lister; introduced with 86-DOS 0.74.
 * The character å (0xE5) was not allowed as the first letter in a filename under 86-DOS and MS-DOS/PC DOS 1.x-2.x, but can be used in later versions.
 * 86-DOS 0.42 up to MS-DOS 1.14 used hard-wired drive profiles instead of a FAT ID, but used this byte to distinguish between media formatted with 32-byte or 16-byte directory entries, as they were used prior to 86-DOS 0.42.
 * 86-DOS did not offer any specific support for fixed disks, but third-party solutions in form of hard disk controllers and corresponding I/O system extensions for 86-DOS were available from companies like Tallgrass Technologies, making hard disks accessible similar to superfloppies within the size limits of the FAT12 file system. (also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallgrass_Technologies)
 * In this same time period Phoenix purchased a non-exclusive license for Seattle Computer Products 86-DOS. Phoenix developed customized versions of 86-DOS (or sometimes called PDOS for Phoenix DOS) for various microprocessor platforms. Phoenix also provided PMate as a replacement for Edlin as the DOS file editor. Phoenix also developed C language libraries, called PForCe, along with Plink-86/Plink-86plus, overlay linkers, and Pfix-86, a windowed Debugger for DOS.