22 Jun
2001
22 Jun
'01
11:59 a.m.
On Fri, 22 Jun 2001, Jeff Hellige wrote:
That article is FULL of errors!
It says that 1.0 supported 320K. Wrong. 320K came with PC-DOS 1.10 and
MS-DOS 1.25
It doesn't bother to mention that 2.00 was the first support for
sub-directories, and file handle based file I/O
PC-DOS 2.10 was IBM's patched 2.00. They added addition ROM scanning, and
slowed down the disk I/O to deal with the Qumetrak 142 drives that IBM
used in the JR and Portable that were too slow to use with DOS.
MS-DOS 2.11 was the "customizable" version. Many manufacturers used it to
add 720K and support for weird video (such as Gavilan)
3.00 permitted path in command invocation, and added 1.2M
3.10 added the (undocumented) network redirector. You need at least 3.10
to run MSCDEX
3.20 supported 720K. The article is WRONG.
3.30 supported 1.4M, NOT just 720K The article is WRONG.
3.31 (MS-DOS only, NO PC-DOS) broke the 32M limit. The article is WRONG.
"3.3+" is the MARKETING name, NOT the [real] version number. Please tell
me how you would put "3+" into 8 bits! The REAL minor version number is
taken as a two digit decimal number, and then stored in 8 bits.
Zenith was NOT "the first". They were merely one of the many simultaneous
releases of 3.31. But they were the one that the author of that article
had heard of.
BTW, Compaq could also make the same BOGUS claim to be "the first".
If 4.00 was a "major upgrade" as the article states, then what is the
difference between it and 3.31?
5.00 was NOT based on DR-DOS!!! DR, did however, beat MICROS~1 to market
with a similar feature list.
How about 6.00, 6.10, 6.20, 6.21, 6.22, 6.23, and 6.30? Well, THOSE are
OT for thisa list.
It states that Zenith DOS 3.3+ supported the
larger partition size
supported by DOS 4.0. We had a couple of Zenith 248's that ran 3.3+
but most of ours ran Zenith DOS 3.2 with either 20meg (ST-225) or 40meg
(ST-251 or dual ST-225's) drives. The ST-251's were generally
partitioned into two 20meg partitions, even if using DOS 3.3+. This
was done for compatibility purposes since any extended 3.3+ partition
would be unreadable if the system was booted from a 3.2 floppy.
Judging from the way the timeline on the page is laid out, it would
appear that Zenith DOS 3.3+ may have been the first to break the
32MB/partition barrier.
I value YOUR knowledge far more than that article. You may not realize
it, but you know more than he does. The author of it should be ashamed of
himself for such GROSS lack of research. Whereas you don't make claims
other than relating your experiences.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com