CP/M had PIP, because it was closely based on RT-11, IIRC. (I never
used RT-11.)
HDOS, a competitor to CP/M that only ran on Heath machines, also had
PIP. (HDOS was my first OS.) I eventually learned (through
experimentation, not through disassembly, more's the pity) that HDOS's
SYSCMD.SYS system command interpreter had two functions:
- launch binary programs (.ABS, absolute binary)
- run PIP commands. COPY, CAT, DIR, RESET, MOUNT, DISMOUNT, TYPE,
etc., all were interpreted as PIP commands. If PIP.ABS wasn't on the
disk in your boot drive, these commands didn't work, IIRC. Normally
PIP.ABS would be on every disk. :)
HDOS eventually grew to the point where it had batch files with
conditional execution -- too little, too late.
I think there were somewhere around 10,000 HDOS users at one point. (I
seem to remember that number from a web page somewhere.)
-- <kragen@pobox.com> Kragen Sitaker <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/> According to my medieval text in the seventh century a finalizer raised a dead object named Gorth who infected every computer in Cappidocia ending Roman rule in the region. -- Charles Fiterman on gclist@iecc.com