DOS Navigator

DOS Navigator (DN) is an orthodox file manager for DOS, OS/2 and Windows.

DOS Navigator
Screenshot of DOS Navigator
Original author(s)Stefan Tanurkov, Andrew Zabolotny, Sergey Melnik (initial release)
Developer(s)Ritlabs
Initial release1991 (1991)
Written inTurbo Pascal, Turbo Vision
Operating systemDOS, OS/2, Windows
TypeOrthodox file manager
Websiteritlabs.com/en/products/dn/

Influence of DOS Navigator

DOS Navigator is an influential early implementation of orthodox file manager (OFM). By implementing three additional types of virtual file systems (VFS): XTree, Briefcase and list-based, DN opened a new generation of OFMs. Also an unlimited number of panels and many new important features make it one of the most powerful (and complex) OFMs.[1]

History

The initial version of DN I (v 0.90) was released in 1991, and written by Stefan Tanurkov, Andrew Zabolotny and Sergey Melnik (all from Chișinău, Moldova). After that, DN was rewritten using Turbo Vision by Stefan Tanurkov and Dmitry Dotsenko (Dmitry developed DN at Moscow State University). These versions are sometimes referred as DN II.

In 1993, Slava Filimonov invited Stefan to join him to continue producing and publishing DN with joint efforts. Slava also contributed programming new components, design and made countless optimizations and improvements. He wrote a new software key protection system which remained unbreakable for almost four years after its introduction.[2]

DN II was actively developed until the start of 1995, until version 1.35 which should be considered as a milestone in OFM implementations.[1] Several other programmers participated in development after version 1.35. Starting from version 1.37, Slava Filimonov and Ilya Bagdasarov were in charge of bug-fixing. Filimonov and Bagdasarov solely maintained, developed and released versions 1.37 through 1.39. After they left, DN was maintained again by Stefan and newly acquired developer Maxim Masiutin.

In 1998, the development mostly took a bug-fixing direction as Ritlabs' new product The Bat! became a more promising software product with much better commercial potential. The last shareware version was 1.50. In late 1999, Ritlabs decided to make version 1.51 of the DOS Navigator completely free with freely available source code.

Legacy
Spreadsheet in DOS Navigator

Other groups still release software based on the DN open source code, including new features such as support for long filenames, and support for Linux.

  • DN 1.51 650 KB for Win32 & OS/2 - Sources (Virtual Pascal) (972,655)
  • DOS Navigator Open Source Project (ODN)
  • DN OSP 6.4.0 1 MB for DOS/DPMI (Windows 9x)
  • Necromancer's DOS Navigator (NDN)
  • DN 4.9.0 2004 for DOS included in UBCD v3.4
gollark: I don't agree with their reasoning, but I do roughly understand it.
gollark: Indeed. They are probably not just going "hmm, today I will be evil by being mean to pregnant people for no particular reason".
gollark: How interesting.
gollark: I agree.
gollark: "people do not agree with me, therefore we live in a simulation"

See also

References
  1. Bezroukov, Nikolai (2013-07-07). "Dos Navigator — a breakthrough in VFS development". Less is More: The Orthodox File Manager (OFM) Paradigm. Softpanorama. Archived from the original on 2013-04-16. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  2. Vianello, Francesco (1997-12-10). "DOS Navigator v1.50: how to spy our targets". Fravia's page of reverse engineering. Archived from the original on 2018-09-11. Retrieved 2018-09-10. (NB. DN as an example of DOS cracking.)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.