4 ms·

'MZ' has been confirmed to be the initials of Mark Zbikowski, there's no question about it. It's not "Memory" + "Last".

canucker2016 8mo ago
Given the MZ magic bytes in the EXE format header - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_MZ_executable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_MZ_executable, I would have assumed an association with Mark Zbikowski as well. The ARR is probably Aaron R Reynolds (also associated with the AARD code for detecting non-MSDOS environments), but you can't ask for his opinion since he passed about 20 years ago - https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/november2008/aaron-r-reynolds-1979.html https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/no.... Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code and a Raymond Chen story involving aaronr - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20190924-00/?p=102915 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20190924-00/?p=10... and a pic of him with the Windows team - https://web.archive.org/web/20191014055254/https://community.windows.com/en-us/stories/the-story-of-windows-part-1 https://web.archive.org/web/20191014055254/https://community... from another os2museum.com article about MS-DOS, https://www.os2museum.com/wp/dos/dos-3-0-3-2/ https://www.os2museum.com/wp/dos/dos-3-0-3-2/ The development of DOS 3.0 was led by Mark Zbikowski and *Aaron Reynolds*, both experienced DOS 2.x programmers.
pwdisswordfishy 8mo ago
Confirmed by a Hacker News rando. Seems legit.
- einr 8mo ago
  How about "confirmed by Mark Zbikowski himself in a video interview"? Does that sound better? https://youtu.be/c6yPoWrdjkU?si=hxvXTE6ZsdvJs5U9&t=1266 https://youtu.be/c6yPoWrdjkU?si=hxvXTE6ZsdvJs5U9&t=1266 (roughly 21:06 into the video)
  - fredoralive 8mo ago
    That's talking about the MZ signature at the start of every DOS EXE executable (and therefore every Windows EXE as they have DOS stubs), not this additional use as markers in the DOS memory management code. Which probably is also Mark Zbikowski using his initials, but doesn't seem to be confirmed.
    - einr 8mo ago
      OK, fair enough!

canucker2016 8mo ago

Given the MZ magic bytes in the EXE format header - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_MZ_executable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_MZ_executable, I would have assumed an association with Mark Zbikowski as well. The ARR is probably Aaron R Reynolds (also associated with the AARD code for detecting non-MSDOS environments), but you can't ask for his opinion since he passed about 20 years ago - https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/november2008/aaron-r-reynolds-1979.html https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/no.... Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code and a Raymond Chen story involving aaronr - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20190924-00/?p=102915 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20190924-00/?p=10... and a pic of him with the Windows team - https://web.archive.org/web/20191014055254/https://community.windows.com/en-us/stories/the-story-of-windows-part-1 https://web.archive.org/web/20191014055254/https://community... from another os2museum.com article about MS-DOS, https://www.os2museum.com/wp/dos/dos-3-0-3-2/ https://www.os2museum.com/wp/dos/dos-3-0-3-2/ The development of DOS 3.0 was led by Mark Zbikowski and *Aaron Reynolds*, both experienced DOS 2.x programmers.

pwdisswordfishy 8mo ago

Confirmed by a Hacker News rando. Seems legit.

einr 8mo ago
How about "confirmed by Mark Zbikowski himself in a video interview"? Does that sound better? https://youtu.be/c6yPoWrdjkU?si=hxvXTE6ZsdvJs5U9&t=1266 https://youtu.be/c6yPoWrdjkU?si=hxvXTE6ZsdvJs5U9&t=1266 (roughly 21:06 into the video)
- fredoralive 8mo ago
  That's talking about the MZ signature at the start of every DOS EXE executable (and therefore every Windows EXE as they have DOS stubs), not this additional use as markers in the DOS memory management code. Which probably is also Mark Zbikowski using his initials, but doesn't seem to be confirmed.
  - einr 8mo ago
    OK, fair enough!