[W/K] :: MS-DOS

  MS-DOS
       n : an operating system developed by Bill Gates for personal
           computers [syn: Microsoft disk operating system]

  MSDOS
       MicroSoft Disk Operating System (MS, OS, PC)
       
       

  MS-DOS /M-S-dos/ n. [MicroSoft Disk Operating System] A clone of
     {CP/M for the 8088 crufted together in 6 weeks by hacker Tim Paterson
     at Seattle Computer Products, who called the original QDOS (Quick and
     Dirty Operating System) and is said to have regretted it ever since.
     Microsoft licensed QDOS in order to have something to demo for IBM on
     time, and the rest is history. Numerous features, including vaguely
     Unix-like but rather broken support for subdirectories, I/O redirection,
     and pipelines, were hacked into Microsoft's 2.0 and subsequent versions;
     as a result, there are two or more incompatible versions of many system
     calls, and MS-DOS programmers can never agree on basic things like what
     character to use as an option switch or whether to be case-sensitive.
     The resulting appalling mess is now the highest-unit-volume OS in
     history. Often known simply as DOS, which annoys people familiar with
     other similarly abbreviated operating systems (the name goes back to the
     mid-1960s, when it was attached to IBM's first disk operating system for
     the 360). The name further annoys those who know what the term
     operating system does (or ought to) connote; DOS is more properly a
     set of relatively simple interrupt services. Some people like to
     pronounce DOS like "dose", as in "I don't work on dose, man!", or to
     compare it to a dose of brain-damaging drugs (a slogan button in wide
     circulation among hackers exhorts: "MS-DOS: Just say No!"). See
     mess-dos, ill-behaved.
  
  

  MS-DOS
       
           /M S doss/ Microsoft Disk Operating System
          (Or "{DOS", "{MS-DOG}", "{mess-dos}") Microsoft
          Corporation's clone of CP/M for the 8088 crufted
          together in 6 weeks by hacker Tim Paterson, who is said to
          have regretted it ever since.
       
          MS-DOS is a single user operating system that runs one
          program at a time and is limited to working with one megabyte
          of memory, 640 kilobytes of which is usable for the
          application program.  Special add-on EMS memory boards
          allow EMS-compliant software to exceed the 1 MB limit.
          Add-ons to DOS, such as Microsoft Windows and DESQview,
          take advantage of EMS and allow the user to have multiple
          applications loaded at once and switch between them.
       
          Numerous features, including vaguely Unix-like but rather
          broken support for subdirectories, I/O redirection, and
          pipelines, were hacked into MS-DOS 2.0 and subsequent
          versions; as a result, there are two or more incompatible
          versions of many system calls, and MS-DOS programmers can
          never agree on basic things like what character to use as an
          option switch or whether to be case-sensitive.  The resulting
          mess is now the highest-unit-volume operating system in
          history.  It is used on many Intel 16 and 32 bit
          microprocessors and IBM PC compatibles.
       
          Many of the original DOS functions were calls to BASIC (in
          ROM on the original IBM PC), e.g. Format and Mode.  People
          with non-IBM PCs had to buy MS-Basic (later called
          GWBasic).  Most version of DOS came with some version of
          BASIC.
       
          Also know as PC-DOS or simply as DOS, which annoys people
          familiar with other similarly abbreviated operating systems
          (the name goes back to the mid-1960s, when it was attached to
          IBM's first disk operating system for the IBM 360).  Some
          people like to pronounce DOS like "dose" or to compare it to a
          dose of brain-damaging drugs (a slogan button in wide
          circulation among hackers exhorts: "MS-DOS: Just say No!").
       
          [{Jargon File]
       
          (1998-07-19)