Mail Archives: djgpp/1999/02/28/11:48:33
At 02:42 PM 2/28/99 +0200, you wrote:
>First, all Microsoft OSes, beginning from DOS 2.0 and including
>Windows 9X and NT, can handle both '/' and `\' as directory
>separators, without any trouble.
This is incorrect:
C:\PGD\C++\omega\ofc>dir c:/
Invalid switch - /
Command.com, I'm sure you will all agree, is part of the OS and not an
application; and "dir" is built into command.com, instead of being an
application.
The truth here: OS calls through the OS *application interface* seem to
support both slash directions. However no Microsoft OS *user interface*
does; all exclusively support only the (nonstandard) backslash.
>So you can safely pass file names with '/' to the OS [API] calls and they
>will just work.
This is true. Just don't try that in any Microsoft shell.
>Application
>programs, mainly those supplied by MS with the systems, don't usually
>support '/', but that's because their application code was
>deliberately written that way.
True. Also true for their OS shells and some other OS-level UI functionality.
>DJGPP applications usually support both styles of slashes, even if
>they are mixed, like in c:\djgpp\bin/ld.exe.
Mixed tending to result when parts of it come from the environment
variables (e.g. PATH) or from argv[0].
--
.*. "Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not
-() < circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a
`*' straight line." -------------------------------------------------
-- B. Mandelbrot |http://surf.to/pgd.net
_____________________ ____|________ Paul Derbyshire pderbysh AT usa DOT net
Programmer & Humanist|ICQ: 10423848|
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