[1] : Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002)

qdos
     quick and dirty operating system os, pc, ms-dos, predecessor
     
     

[2] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

qdos
     
         the sinclair ql's proprietary operating
        system.  the origin of the name is uncertain a weak pun on
        kudos, perhaps, as unix was on multics.  there was
        another os around from the birth of personal computers called
        q.d.o.s. - quick and dirty operating system.  qdos might also
        stand for ql data/disk/drive/device operating system.
     
        qdos did the usual os sorts of things, as well as
        multitasking.  it was unusual in several ways.  it treated all
        devices serial ports, mouse ports, screen, microdrive,
        disk drive, keyboard, etc. uniformly, so you could print a
        text file direct to disk or save a binary to the screen for
        example.
     
        also logical channels could be assigned to particular physical
        devices.  output directed to a channel would go to the
        appropriate in/output.  this also meant you could have many
        windows on screen the ql booted up from internal roms with 3
        windows - command line, output and program listing all
        independent to some extent.  channels could be redirected
        without affecting the way the process sent or received the
        data.
     
        1996-07-22
     
     
see also:
ql operating system unix multics microdrive disk drive 

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