Tim Paterson (born 1 June 1956) is an American computer programmer, best known for creating 86-DOS, an operating system for the Intel 8086.
Paterson began work on QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) in April 1980 to fill that void, copying the APIs of CP/M from references, including the published CP/M manual, so that it would be highly compatible.
[3] While acknowledging that he made 86-DOS compatible with CP/M,[4] Paterson has maintained that the 86-DOS program was his original work and has denied allegations that he referred to CP/M code while writing it.
Instead, a careful review of the Lefer notes ... provides a research picture tellingly close to the substance of the final chapter" and the case was dismissed on the basis that the book's claims were constitutionally protected opinions and not provably false.
[1] In 1983, Microsoft contracted Paterson to port MS-DOS to the MSX computers standard they were developing with ASCII Corporation.