86-DOS

86-DOS User Interface

86-DOS, known internally as QDOS, Q-DOS, or Seattle DOS,[1] is an operating system by Seattle Computer Products. It was later licensed[2] and then bought[3] by Microsoft and used as the basis for IBM PC-DOS and MS-DOS.

Development History[edit | edit source]

Development of QDOS began in April 1980 out of the growing need for an 8086 operating system,[4] as CP/M-86 had been delayed since December 1979.[5][6] It was written on a Cromemco Z80 computer[7] running Cromemco's CDOS, in a text editing software called MicroPro WordMaster.[8][9] It was then translated using a Z80 to 8086 translator called TRANS-86 (which was later ported to 86-DOS and renamed to simply TRANS)[8][10] and tested on the Seattle Computer Products 16-bit Computer System.[11] QDOS was ready to ship in July, with Tim Paterson, the creator, spending about half of his time on its development.[4][12] Though the operating system wasn't completely finished, Paterson figured a quick release was more important than adding all the features.[13]

Though some parts of QDOS were written from scratch or by referencing the CP/M-80 manual,[14] others were created in Z80 assembly and then translated using the TRANS command.[15] Paterson claims that QDOS was created with CP/M translation compatibility being the goal[16] - however, these extreme similarities between the OSes caused controversy,[note 1] even going as far as a defamation case.[note 2] It has also been rumored that QDOS' development was aided by not only the CP/M manuals, but the source code as well[17] (or even Digital Research's original OEM translation tools).[18] However, these rumors are both unsourced and unlikely.[note 3]

Paterson later revealed he had mostly worked on hardware before QDOS, and that the idea came during his work on Seattle Computer products' 8086 board.[6] He decided on aspects of the OS because of his experience with North Star and Cromemco's variants of CP/M,[5] UCSD p-System, and Unix.[8] He also took inspiration for the filesystem from an unfinished 8-bit operating system known as Microsoft Interrupt Driven Asynchronous System (MIDAS[15] or M-DOS,[19] called MDOS before 1980[note 4]), written by Marc McDonald,[15][19] which he learned about during the 1979 National Computer Conference.[8]

Version list[edit | edit source]

Beta[edit | edit source]

Confirmed build QDOS 0.10
Confirmed build QDOS 0.11
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.2
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.3
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.33
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.34
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.42
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.56
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.60
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.74
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.75
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.76
Confirmed build 86-DOS 0.80

86-DOS 1.xx[edit | edit source]

Leaked build 86-DOS 1.00
Confirmed build 86-DOS 1.01
Confirmed build 86-DOS 1.10
Leaked build 86-DOS 1.14

See also[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Perhaps the most compelling argument comes from the creator of CP/M, Gary Kildall - "Ask Bill why function code 6 (in DOS) ends with a dollar sign. ... No one in the world knows that but me." (quoted directly from Bill Gates: Of Mind and Money by James Wallace and Jim Erickson, published in the 8 May 1991 issue of Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
  2. ↑ Paterson v. Little, Brown Co.
  3. ↑ The only way Seattle Computer Products could have had the CP/M source code or OEM translation tools was if they had a source code license from Digital Research - that too has also been rumored, though it is once again unsourced and not very likely.
  4. ↑ The exact date of the name change is unknown, but drafts of the user manual from 1979 and 1980 give an approximate date.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (25 July 2007). Paterson v. Little, Brown, and Co., et al. - Order. Seattle Times. Case 2:05-cv-01719-TSZ Document 29.
  2. ↑ Brock, Rod; Allen, Paul (6 January 1981). 86-DOS License Agreement with Microsoft. Slated Antitrust Documents.
  3. ↑ Brock, Rod; Allen, Paul (27 July 1981). 86-DOS Agreement of Sale with Microsoft. Slated Antitrust Documents.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Hunter, David (March 1983). The Roots of DOS: Tim Paterson. Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer. p. 12-15.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Paterson, Tim (30 September 2007). Design of DOS. DosMan Drivel.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Bornstein, Howard (1986). MS-DOS (Versions 1.0-3.2) Technical Reference Encyclopedia. Microsoft Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-914845-69-1.
  7. ↑ Watt, Peggy (7 April 1986). MS-DOS creator Tim Paterson earns place in industry annals. Computerworld. p. 54.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Paterson, Tim (4 August 2018). VCF West XIII -- Tim Paterson -- Original DOS and the old days. Vintage Computer Federation.
  9. ↑ Glatzer, Hal (March 1980). Reflections on Past and Future With the Man From MS-DOS. Software News. p. 44 & 46.
  10. ↑ Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) Unofficial Changelist. BytePointer.
  11. ↑ Paterson, Tim (24 November 2007). The First DOS Machine. DosMan Drivel.
  12. ↑ Rojas, Raúl (April 2001). Encyclopedia of Computers and Computer History (A-L). Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 1-57958-235-4.
  13. ↑ Watt, Peggy (12 August 1991). PC-DOS, also 10, has its own storied past. Infoworld. p. 48.
  14. ↑ Cringely, Robert (June 1996). Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires (Season 1). PBS.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Manes, Stephen; Andrews, Paul (1993). Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry—and Made Himself the Richest Man in America. Doubleday. p. 280-281. ISBN 0-385-42075-7.
  16. ↑ Välimäki, Mikko (2005). The Rise of Open Source Licensing. Turre. p. 88. ISBN 952-91-8779-3.
  17. ↑ Finley, Klint (7 August 2012). Was Microsoft's Empire Built on Stolen Code? We May Never Know. WIRED.
  18. ↑ Paul, Matthias (2000). 25 Years of DR-DOS History. FreeDOS.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Duncan, Ray (1988). The MS-DOS Encyclopedia. Microsoft Press. ISBN 1-55615-049-0.
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