Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: How wrong is MS-DOS? Message-ID: <3108@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Date: 9 Jan 91 19:36:01 GMT References: Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY Lines: 17 In article don@zl2tnm.gp.co.nz (Don Stokes) writes: | Agreed, although it appears the MS-DOS was created in rather a hurry, | and as a bit of an afterthought. I don't think it's really fair to say | MS-DOS was "designed", rather "evolved" from existing operating systems. Microsoft didn't write MS-DOS, it was written at Seattle Computer as QDOS (Quick and Dirty OS) as a 16 bit clone of CP/M. After that it grew, with many unix-like parts in the filesystem. "Software tends to grow like a snowman built by a small child. It starts as a simple initial design in smooth layers, then grows by slapping some stuff on here and there and later smoothing over whatever sticks." (I said that in 1985 about another program entirely, but it fits.) -- bill davidsen (davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen) VMS is a text-only adventure game. If you win you can use unix.