Editing Edlin (section)

==History==
[[File:IBM PC DOS 1.0 screenshot.png|thumb|300px|<code>EDLIN.COM</code> (among several other commands) in [[IBM PC DOS]] 1.0]]
[[File:ATOK 8 for PC-98 screenshot.png|thumb|300px|Using EDLIN for typing Japanese with the [[ATOK]] 8 input method editor, running on [[MS-DOS]] 3.3C for the [[PC-9800 series]]]]
Edlin was created by [[Tim Paterson]] in two weeks in 1980, for [[Seattle Computer Products]]'s [[86-DOS]] (QDOS)<ref>{{cite web| url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518224631/http://www.patersontech.com/dos/byte%E2%80%93history.aspx| archive-date=2019-05-18 | url = http://www.patersontech.com/dos/byte%E2%80%93history.aspx| title = A Short History of MS-DOS|website=Patersontech.com}}</ref> based on the [[CP/M]] context editor ''ED'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.shaels.net/index.php/cpm80-22-documents/using-cpm/8-ed-utility|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620002545/http://www.shaels.net/index.php/cpm80-22-documents/using-cpm/8-ed-utility|url-status=dead|title=ED Utility|archive-date=20 June 2013|website=Shaels.net|access-date=24 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_digitalResrsManual1978_1058478|title=ED: A Context Editor for The CP/M Disk System|website=archive.org|date=1978 |access-date=8 May 2023}}</ref> itself distantly inspired by the [[DEC PDP-10]] [[TOPS-10]] EDIT text editor.

Microsoft acquired 86-DOS and, after some further development, sold it as MS-DOS, so Edlin was included in v1.0–v5.0 of MS-DOS. From MS-DOS 6 onwards, the only editor included was the new full-screen [[MS-DOS Editor]]. 

[[Windows 95]], [[Windows 98|98]] and [[Windows ME|ME]] ran on top of an embedded version of DOS, which reports itself as [[MS-DOS 7]]. As a successor to MS-DOS 6, this did not include Edlin. 

However, Edlin is included in the 32-bit versions of [[Windows NT]]<ref>[http://support.microsoft.com/kb/101929 16-Bit Applications Included with Windows NT], Microsoft.com</ref> and its derivatives—up to and including [[Windows 10]]—because the [[Virtual DOS machine|NTVDM]]'s DOS support in those operating systems is based on MS-DOS version 5.0. However, unlike most other external DOS commands, it has not been transformed into a native [[Windows API|Win32]] program. It also does not support [[long filename]]s, which were not added to MS-DOS and Windows until long after Edlin was written.

The [[FreeDOS]] version was developed by Gregory Pietsch.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/pkg-html/edlin.html| website=Ibiblio.org|title=FreeDOS Package -- edlin (FreeDOS Base)}}</ref>