Tim Paterson :: essays research papers

Tim Paterson, also known as the "Father of Dos" is the computer programmer who created the world's most widely used computer program: DOS. Creating DOS at age 24, Paterson claims, "it is an accomplishment that probably can't be repeated by anyone ever." After Paterson graduated from University of Washington in Seattle with a bachelors of science degree, he tried going to graduate school but lost interest. "I thought they were too oriented towards theory and not what I needed." Although he received a good education at U of W, Paterson did not learn the majority of his computer skills from text books. "I learned it by reading and playing with it. I got a lot of exposure to electronics stuff at home." Throughout his education and experience with computers, Tim Paterson as become one of the most genius computer programmers of our time. After college, Paterson landed a job as a computer technician at a Seattle area retail computer store. Because of his experience with computers, Paterson stared designing his own peripheral boards on the side. Through his job and his computer experience, Paterson was hired into a better job. "I got to know Rod Brock of Seattle Computer when he came into the store periodically. We were selling his boards. Eventually he asked me to consult for Seattle Computer." After helping the company fix there memory boards at fifty dollars a day, they offered him a full time position and Paterson quit his job at the retail store. The first major task Seattle Computer threw at Paterson was building an operation system for their new computer; the CP/M. Paterson was a little hesitant at first in creating such a program but he put up to the challenge. "I had always wanted to write my own operating system. I’ve always hated CP/M and thought I could do it a lot better." Little did he know before he started the project that he was about to create the "the world's most widely used computer program." By the spring of 1980, Paterson had created a program called QDOS.10 (stands for Quick and Dirty). After finding bugs in the program, he fixed the problem and named it QDOS.11. By the end of August 1980, the program was working well and being shipped. Not knowing the great potential of his new program, Paterson was not expecting much from it. "I was aghast," says Paterson, "When I heard that IBM was using it (QDOS.