History and Current Status
Originally distributed as shareware, 4DOS has been later released as unsupported freeware. Currently, the source code is available under a modified MIT License but it "may not be used in any commercial product without written permission from Rex Conn" and "may not be compiled for use on any operating system other than FreeDOS" so it does not qualify as open source as defined by Open Source Initiative.
The last update by JPSoft was version 7.50.130, released in August 2004. During its 15-year history, 4DOS underwent numerous updates; here are a few of the most significant.
| Version | Released | New features |
|---|---|---|
| 2.00 | February 15, 1989 | Original release. Improved command-line editing, filename completion, command history, aliases, improved wildcards, online help, internal variables, swapping to disk or EMS, file descriptions, command separator, key stacker |
| 2.20 | July 5, 1989 | Executable extensions |
| 3.00 | March 7, 1990 | BTM batch files (cached to memory for speed), extended memory (XMS) swapping, variable functions, bracket variable-name syntax |
| 4.00 | November 1, 1991 | Colored directory listings, 4DOS.INI configuration file, include lists, command groups, implied CDD, DOS 5 UMB support |
| 5.00 | November 23, 1993 | Date, time, and size ranges; compressed batch files |
| 5.51 | August 22, 1995 | Long filename support, REXX in .BAT files (as in PC-DOS 7.0) |
| 6.00 | July 24, 1997 | Extended directory searches, interactive configuration (OPTION command), exclusion ranges, interactive batch file debugger |
| 7.00 | June 18, 2001 | @file lists (as in DR-DOS) |
| 7.50 | February 24, 2003 | User-defined functions |
| 7.50.1 | November 2006 | Open source version of 7.50. Luchezar Georgiev has continued developing 4DOS. |
| 8.00 | February 27, 2009 | Latest version. |
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