CP/M in Windows

[Will_Repair]

MS-DOS was built around CP/M. CP/M programs would run in DOS, although not without some problems. Windows was first built around DOS and now still runs DOS programs. Will Windows run CP/M programs? If not, how long into the Windows evolution did CP/M programs run?

[Ximenean]

I don’t think MSDOS was built around CP/M. Rather, it copied many of its design features. CP/M programs weren’t binary compatible with MSDOS.

[PuddingCat]

No current version of Windows will run CP/M. You get Win32 and Posix, and Posix is extremely limited. IIRC OS/2 subsystem made its last appearance in NT4.

tim

[Cerowyn]

@Will Repair

CP/M programs would run in DOS, although not without some problems.

Do you mean that CP/M software could be ported to MS-DOS relatively easily? Or are you suggesting that the binaries would work under MS-DOS? Because while CP/M itself was originally 8080-based, most software written for it only ran on Z80-based machines. MS-DOS at the time was strictly 8088/8086.

[Will_Repair]

Turns out it wasn’t as simple as I thought.

@About.com

The “Microsoft Disk Operating System” or MS-DOS was based on QDOS, the “Quick and Dirty Operating System” written by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products, for their prototype Intel 8086 based computer.
QDOS was based on Gary Kildall’s CP/M, Paterson had bought a CP/M manual and used it as the basis to write his operating system in six weeks, QDOS was different enough from CP/M to be considered legal.

CP/M-86 became DR-DOS.

Cerowyn, Yes, the binaries.