8.3 filenames

Yet another Microsoft innovation.

MS-DOS's FAT filesystem has restricted filenames. Filenames can, at their longest, have 8 characters, followed by a period, and then 3 more characters to identify the file type. This restriction was worked-around in Windows 95's VFAT, with the "MICROS~1" hack.

The Atari series used this naming convention. They even used a disk operating system called (surprise!) DOS.
I used to believe that they had it before Microsoft did. That Atari, in fact, had invented it. Of course, this was because I happened to have an Atari before ever hearing of Microsoft. Now there's an example of Post Hoc ergo Propter Hoc reasoning.

I also thought that the 8.3 filename was the best thing about MS-DOS.

So much for pathos.