The assembly source code of MS-DOS 4.0 contains a number of identifiers as comments that begin with AN or AC and are followed by a three-digit number.
Example from KEYBCMD.ASM
PUBLIC LANG_PTR_SIZE ;AN000;
PUBLIC CP_PTR_SIZE ;AN000;
PUBLIC NUM_ID ;AN000;
https://github.com/microsoft/MS-DOS/tree/main/v4.0/src (https://github.com/microsoft/MS-DOS/tree/main/v4.0/src)
Is this a reference to internal documentation that only Microsoft has or are these the authors' initials? AN could stand for annotation, AC for assembly code perhaps?
If this is part of documentation, where can I find it? In any case, it wasn't included with the release of the source code as open source. I searched the github repository for MS-DOS but didn't find anything like that.
Dunno; did you see this in one of those files?
; AN000 version 4.00 Jan. 1988
Maybe it's just refers to a certain revision?
The identifiers ANxxx and ACxxx in the comments of MS-DOS 4.0 source code are not officially documented,
and their exact meaning remains unclear.
Some speculate that AN could stand for "annotation" and
AC for "assembly code," possibly referencing internal documentation or conventions used by the developers
Quote from: NoCforMe on April 09, 2025, 01:32:26 PMDunno; did you see this in one of those files?
; AN000 version 4.00 Jan. 1988
Maybe it's just refers to a certain revision?
Yes, I saw that. I assume that refers to the MS-DOS version, which in this case would be 4.0. This also comes up frequently in the comments in the code.
Quote from: greenozon on April 09, 2025, 10:22:29 PMThe identifiers ANxxx and ACxxx in the comments of MS-DOS 4.0 source code are not officially documented,
and their exact meaning remains unclear.
That's what it looks like.
QuoteSome speculate that AN could stand for "annotation" and
AC for "assembly code,"
Yup, that's me. Did AI told you that?
Quotepossibly referencing internal documentation or conventions used by the developers
That would be my assumption. One can only hope that those who persuaded Microsoft to release the MS-DOS 4.0 code will ask again about this. Maybe Microsoft could publish the documentation, if there is one.