Re: A very basic printing question re XY3

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

--- On Thu, 12/4/08, Harry Binswanger  wrote:

> From: Harry Binswanger 
> Subject: Re: A very basic printing question re XY3
> To: xywrite@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008, 11:16 AM
> > > Okay, what mainframe program was CP/M based on?
> >
> >CP/M (Control Program/Monitor)
>
> Wikipedia says: "Control Program for
> Microcomputers" which doesn't sound
> *quite* right; I thought it was "Control
> Program/Microcomputers." But,
> digging deeper, you are right. "In 1974 CP/M was a
> private project of Gary
> Kildall, under the name "Control
> Program/Monitor". During the conversion of
> CP/M to a commercial product, trademark registration
> documents filed in
> November 1977 gave the product's name as "Control
> Program for Microcomputers."


There is a famous story (apocryphal ?) about how Kildall was offered the opportunity to create DOS,
but turned it down. If true, HE could have been Bill Gates, rather than Patricia's favorite
bogeyman. How might the computing landscape be different today, had he not made the wrong decision
? (I've always been interested in the way history could shift, with just one altered decision or
small fork in the road.) IIRC, Kildall died young in some tragic accident.


 Jordan