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Articles: "Open-Apple, Feb 1987, 'Ask Uncle DOS' "

The disk utility program "FID" included with DOS 3.3 was originally called "FISHEAD" by Rich Williams, the author. Older versions of the Apple II History suggested that the origin of the name "FISHEAD" was lost in the mists of time, but according to Tom Weishaar's introduction to his letter's column "Ask Uncle DOS" in the Feb 1987 edition of Open-Apple, the truth is finally told (again). (Thanks to Mark Percival for making me aware of this).

Back in October, on page 2.71, I said the mnemonic meaning of the program FISHEAD had been lost. Rich Williams, the Apple programmer who wrote FISHEAD and named it, collared me recently and said that the meaning isn't lost at all--it stands for FIle Shower, HElper, And Duplicator.