News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983. Parent comment

Re:The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 by KCUOJJQJ on Thursday May 21, 2020 @10:20PM (#23268089)
>The original version of DOS that Microsoft bought to license to IBM for the PC was written in 6 weeks.

Is this actually true? From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Paterson

When a book appeared in 2004 claiming that 86-DOS was an unoriginal "rip-off" of CP/M,[6] Paterson sued the authors and publishers for defamation.[7][8] The judge found that Paterson failed to provide any evidence regarding "serious doubts" about the accuracy of the Gary Kildall chapter.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The original source code of Microsoft GW-BASIC from 1983 by mrunkel on Friday May 22, 2020 @01:39AM (#23268971)
Even a "rip-off" takes time to write. I'm not sure what you're questioning.

It wasn't a direct copying of the code, but the API was largely similar to CP/M.

[ Parent | on HN ]