MS-DOS Editor
The MS-DOS Editor interface
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| Developer(s) | Microsoft Corporation |
|---|---|
| Initial release | June 1991 |
| Stable release |
2.0.026 / 1995
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| Operating system | MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Text editor |
| License | Proprietary EULA |
MS-DOS Editor, commonly just called edit, is a character-based text editor that comes with MS-DOS (since version 5) and 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows. It superseded edlin, the standard editor in earlier versions.
Until MS-DOS 6.22 it was actually QBasic running in editor mode, but from DOS 7 (Windows 95) QBasic was removed and MS-DOS Editor became a standalone program.
Editor is sometimes used as a substitute for Notepad on Windows 9x, where Notepad is limited to small files only. Editor can edit files that are up to 65,279 lines and up to approximately 5 MB in size. MS-DOS versions are limited to approximately 300 kB, depending on how much conventional memory is free. Editor can be launched by typing it into the Run command dialog on Windows, and by typing edit into the command-line interface. Edit is still included in later versions of Windows such as Windows XP, Windows Vista 32 bit, Windows 7 32 bit, and Windows 8 32 bit. Being a 16-bit DOS application, it will not directly run on 64-bit Windows versions.
Edit version 1.0 appeared in MS-DOS / PC DOS 5.00, OS/2, and Windows NT to 4.0. Early Chicago betas included this version too. These editors rely on QBasic 1.0. This version can only open one file, to the limit of DOS memory. Although this editor can open one file, it can also open the quick help file in a split window.
Edit version 1.1 appeared in MS-DOS 6.0. No new features were added to the editor: the main difference is that the QBasic 1.1 is used to show the MS-DOS 6.0 help. This version is available also on all versions of Windows 9x, although the files are unchanged from 6.22. Renaming help.hlp to edit.hlp allows one to access the DOS 6 help system inside the editor, including cut and paste between the help system and the open file.
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