Trivia: Windows 11 is the first version of any Microsoft operating system for IBM PCs, IBM compatibles, PC compatibles, or PCs shipping without the command line editor EDLIN in any edition.
Why? Because there's no 32-bit x86 edition of Windows 11.
It's only 64-bit versions of (x86) Windows that don't come with EDLIN installed.
Also, in Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, & 10, you need to install NTVDM separately in order to run EDLIN. Typing the command for the first time brings up a Windows Troubleshooter Wizard to do just that for you.
I've just been corrected by dosnostalgic on birdsite: DOS 6 and Windows 9x didn't have EDLIN, either. Oops.
I also forgot FreeDOS wrote their own EDLIN port: https://github.com/FDOS/edlin
And on SourceForge, which is newer?? FreeDOS edlin: https://sourceforge.net/projects/freedos-edlin/
@arielmt "Microsoft Windows - From the people who brought you EDLIN!"
@arielmt But MacOS still has ed and that’s 64 bit. So there’s no edlin because when MS ported ed to make edlin they made it 32 bit only!
@cyberspice MS-DOS edlin was inherited from QDOS edlin, which was a clone of CP/M ed, not a clone of Unix ed. CP/M ed was heavily inspired by Unix ed, yes, but CP/M ed had a different user interface making for a very different user experience.
@arielmt which explains why UNIX ed is still going. Fair enough…
@arielmt When was the last time you really needed edlin (Or Ed)?
Personally, I can't tell. Sed helped me out in '96 , when a 2MB-file was too big for vi.
@balglaas The last time I wanted edlin was in 1999, when my only PC was a Windows laptop. When I upgraded to XP in '04, I became frustrated because edlin only works in qwerty, even when Windows CMD uses another keyboard layout.
In the Unix & Linux worlds, I've made ed my main editor, with vi and nano as fallbacks. It's the only editor I use where I don't have to worry about incompatible terminals or terminal oddities, & where the only feature I might miss is syntax highlighting.
@arielmt Time for a 64-bit port of edlin?
@lopta I wonder if FreeDOS edlin compiles in 64-bit. I've been meaning to try, but building anything on Windows is a long and painful experience for me.
FreeDOS edlin: https://github.com/FDOS/edlin
Every version of MS-DOS came with EDLIN.
Every 16-bit version of Windows let you run EDLIN via the underlying MS-DOS.
Every 32-bit version of Windows from the first RTM of Windows 95 right through to the current version of Windows 10 came with EDLIN.