Borland Sidekick

Borland Sidekick was a personal information manager (PIM) that Borland launched in 1984 under Philippe Kahn's leadership. It was an early and popular terminate and stay resident program (TSR) for MS-DOS which enabled computer users to activate the program using a hot key combination (by default:Ctrl-Alt) while working in other programs. Although a text mode program, Sidekick's window-based interface echoed that of the Apple Macintosh and anticipated the eventual look of Microsoft Windows 2.0. It included a personal calendar, text editor (with WordStar-like command interface), calculator, ASCII chart, address book, and phone dialer. According to the prospectus for Borland's initial public offering of stock to the public, Sidekick sold more than 1 million copies in its first three years.

According to Philippe Kahn, Borland did not originally intend to sell Sidekick. It developed the utility to assist the small company's employees. After several months of use Borland realized that it had a saleable product.

Sidekick 1.0 included Calculator, Notepad, Appointment Calendar, Auto Dialer, ASCII Table and other tools.

Sidekick 1.0 Plus included a broader selection of calculators (Business, Scientific, Programmer, Formula), a 9-file Notepad text editor, Appointment Book and Scheduler, a terminal communication tool and ASCII Table. In addition to variants on and enhancements to the 1.0 features, Plus included a 9-file Outliner, q file and directory manager, Clipboard, and supported Expanded Memory and a RAM disk. Control+Alt is the default shortcut to open sidekick 1.0 plus

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