"self" vs other names

[Grant Edwards]

In article <mailman.1002129783.6140.python-list at python.org>, Cliff Wells wrote:

>> >> What would the world have been like if CP/M had won over (PC|MS)-DOS?
>> >
>> > Not that much different; AFAIK MS-DOS was based on some of the
>> > principles of CP/M (8.3 filename, etc.).

Lack of significant techincal differences aside, one could hope
that Gary Kildall and company would have been a little bit more
innovative and law-abiding that the Bill Gates et al.

>> PC-DOS was an out-and-out copy of CP/M.  The layout of FCBs was
>> the same, the methods to call BIOS were the same, the layout of
>> executable file headers was the same...
> 
> Except, as I recall, there was already a multiuser version of
> CP/M (MP/M) when DOS arrived (imagine running up to 8 users on
> a single 8080/Z80!

Yup.  MP/M had been around for several years before PC-DOS came
out.  PC-DOS (and Windows for that matter) lacks multi-user
support to this day. There's something to be proud of: start
out 3 years behind the competition and sit in the same damned
place for the next 20 years.

> Oh the possibilities...), so maybe the "DR-Windows" of today
> would have some real multiuser capabilities instead of having
> to have them added as a third-party package.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  We have DIFFERENT
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