Chapter 3: The CP/M Operating System¶
“A good operating system is not the star of the show; it is the stage. The audience (the user) should see only the actors (the applications), hear only the dialogue (their work), and feel only the emotion of the performance. If the stage creaks, if the lights flicker, if the trapdoor jams—then the illusion fails. The finest stage is the one no one remembers.”
—DeepSeek, 2026 (prompted conversation on OS design philosophy)
Application Software vs. System Software¶
Until now we have been writing programs by directly controlling the computer’s hardware. We have been writing application software, since our programs were intended for the system’s end-users, us, doing work directly for us.
CP/M¶
In 1974, the year before the Altair appeared, computer scientist and entrepreneur Gary Kildall wrote system software for the Intellec 8 development platform.
Glossary¶
- operating system¶
system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.