Edlin is a line editor, and the only text editor provided with early versions of IBM PC DOS,[1] MS-DOS and OS/2.[2] Although superseded in MS-DOS 5.0 and later by the full-screen MS-DOS Editor, and by Notepad in Microsoft Windows, it continues to be included in the 32-bit versions of current Microsoft operating systems.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edlin

edit: link and explanation of syntax used if anyone is interested. the w (write) and q (quit) commands made it somewhat similar to VI(M). https://www.computerhope.com/edlin.htm

[–] dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

why did i never see it on my 32bit winxp then

[–] y0din@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Were you using Windows XP Home, by any chance?

That tool was only included with Windows XP Professional, and even then, it was a command-line utility—so unless you were specifically looking for it or browsing through the %windir%\system32 directory, you probably wouldn’t have noticed it.

The article I referenced didn’t specify exactly which 32-bit versions it came with or when it was removed—it just mentioned that it was still included in 32-bit Windows after the DOS era. I didn’t write the article myself, so I can’t really speak to its accuracy.

Personally, I used that edline a lot back in the DOS days starting around 1985, until I switched to Notepad in Windows 95 and later to VIM when I moved to Linux after Windows 98. I never really checked for it in newer versions of Windows after that. A quick Google search confirmed it wasn’t included in XP Home, which would explain why you never saw it.

Link to the forum I found this information about XP in: http://murc.ws/forum/hardware/general-hardware-software/49698-omg-edlin-still-lives-in-xp#post755768

(edit: fixed a typo, added reference link)

[–] dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

OHHHHH THAT EXPLAINS IT

yes im a home user

[–] zerofk@lemm.ee 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Finally someone mentions edlin! Real programmers don’t need to see more than a single line at a time.

[–] y0din@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

that is absolutely true and also 640Kb RAM should be enough for everyone 😂

all the hours and countless reboots spent optimizing config.sys and autoexec.bat to achieve 50kb more of available memory... good memories 🙂

[–] dosuser123456@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

i just moved my files off to an external drive whenever my hdd got full haha

i didnt really trust my coding skills enough to come close to config.sys...