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From: "Michel LaBarre" <michel.labarre@rogers.com>
To: "'Vince Rice'" <vrice@solidrocksystems.com>, <cygwin@cygwin.com>
References: <CACoZoo0doP455nnL3m0GYgXuUpLuB-p5Za9KeHfs6xmtT8it6A@mail.gmail.com> <0D835E9B9CD07F40A48423F80D3B5A704BB88251@USA7109MB022.na.xerox.net> <36FD437F-4B80-4994-B3B5-FBA599E1F756@solidrocksystems.com>
In-Reply-To: <36FD437F-4B80-4994-B3B5-FBA599E1F756@solidrocksystems.com>
Subject: RE: PATHEXT is fundamental to Windows and Should be recognised by CYGWIN
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2016 17:10:55 -0400
Message-ID: <001301d1ef5d$dbfad1a0$93f074e0$@rogers.com>
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Back-slashes pre-date Bill. Can't blame him for that one.

Before Bill Gates there was "CP/M" launched by Digital Research - basically a bunch of nerd-hippies in Seattle.  IBM was looking to license it for a low end machine it was developing (ominous background music appropriate at this point).  

Gary Kildall, head of DR basically, blew them off.  

Bill Gates found out about IBM's project and knew of a CP/M knock-off which he bought for $75,000 (I have heard other amounts) which he then licensed to IBM.  

The IBM  PC came out and  retarded the industry in a major way (640K limit, TSR programs, etc.) for 10+ years but 30 years later contributed to fighting malaria in Africa.  Go figure.

CP/M, MP/M, and DOS were not really an O/S - just a collection of drivers with veneer-thin interfaces.

-----Original Message-----
From: cygwin-owner@cygwin.com [mailto:cygwin-owner@cygwin.com] On Behalf Of Vince Rice
Sent: August-05-16 2:45 PM
To: cygwin@cygwin.com
Subject: Re: PATHEXT is fundamental to Windows and Should be recognised by CYGWIN

The choice to use slashes as qualifers instead of dashes was “just to be different” as well.

This was ’78-81. VMS wasn’t in Gates’ mind at the time.


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