DOS Navigator

DOS Navigator

Screenshot of DOS Navigator
Original author(s) Stefan Tanurkov, Andrew Zabolotny, Sergey Melnik (initial release)
Developer(s) Ritlabs
Initial release 1991
Operating system DOS, OS/2, Windows
Platform x86
Type Orthodox file manager
Website ritlabs.com/en/products/dn/

DOS Navigator is a free orthodox file manager for DOS, OS/2 and Windows.

Influence of DOS Navigator

DOS Navigator (DN) is an influential early implementation of orthodox file manager (OFM). By implementing three additional types of virtual file system (VFS): Xtree, Briefcase and list-based, DN opened a new generation of OFMs. Also an unlimited number of panels and many new important features make it one of the most powerful (and complex) OFMs.[1]

History

The initial version of DN I (v 0.90) was released in 1991, and written by Stefan Tanurkov, Andrew Zabolotny and Sergey Melnik (all from Chişinău, Moldova). After that, DN was rewritten using Turbo Vision by Stefan Tanurkov and Dmitry Dotsenko (Dmitry developed DN at Moscow State University). These versions are sometimes referred as DN II.

In 1993, Slava Filimonov invited Stefan to join him to continue producing and publishing DN with joint efforts. Slava also contributed programming new components, design and made countless optimizations and improvements. He wrote a new software key protection system which remained unbreakable for almost four years after its introduction.[2]

DN II was actively developed until the start of 1995, until version 1.35 which should be considered as a milestone in OFM implementations.[3] Several other programmers participated in development after version 1.35. Starting from version 1.37, Slava Filimonov and Ilya Bagdasarov were in charge of bug-fixing. Filimonov and Bagdasarov solely maintained, developed and released versions 1.37 through 1.39. After they left, DN was maintained again by Stefan and newly acquired developer, Maxim Masiutin.

In 1998, the development mostly took a bug-fixing direction as Ritlabs new product The Bat! became a more promising software product with much better commercial potential.

The latest shareware version was 1.50. Then, in late 1999, Ritlabs decided to make version 1.51 of the DOS Navigator completely free with freely available source code.

Spreadsheet in DOS Navigator

Life after DOS Navigator

Andrew Zabolotny currently works for a company in Russia. He also contributed to several open source projects, including Crystal Space.

Stefan Tanurkov and Maxim Masiutin are still employed at Ritlabs, developing The Bat!.

Sergey Melnik was a visiting researcher in the Stanford Database Group (1999-2002), joined the Microsoft Research Database Group (2003-2008), and later moved to Google.[4][5][6]

In 1998, Slava Filimonov wrote another file manager windows for MRP Informatics, a company in Czech Republic. The project has since been discontinued.

Other groups still release software based on the DN open source code, including new features such as support for long filenames, and support for Linux.

DN 1.51 650 KB Win32 OS/2 - Sources (Virtual Pascal) (972,655)

DOS Navigator Open Source Project (ODN) DN OSP 6.4.0 1 MB DOS/DPMI (Win9x)

Necromancer's DOS Navigator (NDN)

DN 4.9.0 2004 for DOS included in UBCD v3.4

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dr Nikolai Bezroukov (July 7, 2013). "DN line — a breakthrough in VFS". www.softpanorama.org. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
  2. ↑ Frog's Print (Fravia) (10 December 1997). "DOS Navigator v1.50: how to spy our targets". Fravia's page of reverse engineering., DN as a nice example of DOS cracking
  3. ↑ Bezroukov, Dr Nikolai (20 March 2011). "The Orthodox File Manager (OFM) Paradigm". Softpanorama University Library.
  4. ↑ Melnik, Sergey. "Biographical Sketch". Stanford University InfoLab. Stanford University. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  5. ↑ Melnik, Sergey. "Sergey Melnik". Microsoft Research. Microsoft Corp.
  6. ↑ Melnik, Sergey. "Sergey Melnik". Retrieved 4 February 2012.

External links