Skip to content

Doing software archaeology can be a harrowing task, as rarely do you find complete snapshots of particular versions of software. Case in point the development of MS-DOS – also known as IBM PC DOS – from 86-DOS, which recently got a lucky break in the form of printed source listings . These printouts come courtesy of [Tim Paterson], the creator of 86-DOS and of MS-DOS during his time working for Microsoft.

These code listings contain the sources of the 86-DOS 1.00 kernel, multiple development snapshots, and also listings for utilities like CHKDSK. These printed listings additionally contain many handwritten notes, making transcribing it into working source code somewhat of a chore.…