MS-DOS Editor is a text editor that comes with MS-DOS (since version 5) and 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows. Originally (up to MS-DOS 6.22) it was just a short stub that started QBasic in editor mode. Since DOS 7 (Windows 95), QBasic was removed and the MS-DOS Editor became a standalone program. Although it kept the COM file extension for compatibility, it is actually an EXE.^[1]

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 5MB in size. MS-DOS versions are limited to approximately 300KB, depending on how much conventional memory is free.^[2] Editor can be launched by typing it into the Run command dialog on Windows, and by typing edit into the command line interface (usually cmd.exe).

The MS-DOS Editor, either in stand-alone form or as part of QBASIC, is backward compatible with DOS releases prior to 5.0 (down to at least DOS 3.20). However, if used on any 8088/8086 computers, or on some 80286 computers, the Editor-within-QBASIC version may run very slow, or perhaps not at all, due to the memory size of the QBASIC program. However, the newer, stand-alone Editor will not run on a 8088/8086 machine at all since it contains 80286-instructions. Some small DOS memory can be saved by launching the old, Editor-within-QBASIC, not from EDIT.COM but with the command QBASIC /Edit.

Features

MS-DOS Editor is a Text User Interface and its color scheme can be adjusted. It has a multiple document interface in which Windows 9x versions can open up to nine files at a time while DOS versions are limited to a only one file. The screen can be split vertically into two panes which can be used to view two files simultaneously or different parts of the same file. The editor can also open files in binary mode, where a fixed number of characters are displayed per line, and newlines are treated as any other character. Editor converts Unix newlines to DOS newlines and has mouse support. Some of these features were added only in 1995 (version 2.0), with the release of Windows 95.

Limitations

MS-DOS Editor has several limitations. Earlier versions (MS-DOS 6.22 and older) lack proper support for binary files and is limited to the first 640KB of RAM, like any other MS-DOS real mode program. Outside of binary mode, tabs get converted to spaces and UNIX newlines are converted to DOS newline. It does not directly support USB printers but this can be fixed by adding it as a network printer though. There is no unicode support.

See also

• List of DOS commands
• Comparison of text editors

References

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