Qdos

2 definitions found

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

  QDOS
       Quick and Dirty Operating System (OS, PC, MS-DOS, predecessor)
       
       

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



  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)