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Date:	Mon, 20 Sep 2004 20:24:01 -0400
From:	fdonahoe AT wilkes DOT edu
To:	Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT gnu DOT org>
Cc:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: ANNOUNCE: DJGPP port of GNU libmatheval 1.1.0 uploaded
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Quoting Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT gnu DOT org>:

> > Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 07:19:01 -0400
> > From: fdonahoe AT wilkes DOT edu
> > Cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
> > 
> > The purpose of this post is to alert you that, under XP, "set"
> > is a built-in command of "cmd.exe."  It would be a kindness to
> > the user to put a warning at the top of "djgpp/config.bat"
> > to the effect that failure of "> djgpp\config" under any shell
> > but cmd.exe doesn't mean a lack of environmental space.
> 
> ??? "set" is a built-in command in _every_ DOS/Windows shell out
> there, including command.com.  So I don't understand this alert.
> Please explain what I'm missing.
> 

Begging your pardon, but I challenge your major!  I concede your
familiarity with a great many versions of command.com but if you
had tested the command.com which comes with Windows XP Home Edition
I am sure you would change your position.  This is the cheap, low
end super computer available everywhere.  The sort of thing a
new student would pick up at a back-to-school sale.

If one opens a shortcut to command.com it receives by default
the familiar MS-DOS icon.  A shortcut to cmd.exe gets the cryptic
icon, C:\_.  If this new student learns that he can get an
up-to-date free C, C++, Ida compiler which runs on MS-DOS he will
choose?

But I abandoned that option when I discovered that things didn't
work.  Doskey didn't work!  Under cmd.exe things worked pretty
much as I expected.

Now the file in question, djgpp/config.bat, uses a test of the
availability of environmental memory by setting a variable and
then reading it.  If in cannot read the variable it aborts with
the advice to increase the size of memory reserved for variables
and try again.  Versions of this test are quite common in batch
files which expect to set a number of variables.  command.com
cannot set, and the test fails.

Since bash is listed as one of the programs needed to compile
the package, it is reasonable to try running under bash.  It also
fails because bash is unable to set a variable.

As one who can remember real problems with memory for environ-
mental variables, I would not like to have students waste time
trying to correct a non-existant problem.

With your indulgence below is the total of what the system itself
will say about command.com.

     > help command
This command is not supported by the help utility.  Try "x /?".

     > command x
Specified COMMAND search directory bad
Microsoft(R) Windows DOS
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1990-2001.

     > command /?
  exitStarts a new instance of the MS-DOS command interpreter.

COMMAND [[drive:]path] [device] [/E:nnnnn] [/P] [/C string] [/MSG]

  [drive:]path    Specifies the directory containing COMMAND.COM file.
  device          Specifies the device to use for command input and
output.
  /E:nnnnn        Sets the initial environment size to nnnnn bytes.
  /P              Makes the new command interpreter permanent (can't
exit).
  /C string       Carries out the command specified by string, and
then stops.
  /MSG            Specifies that all error messages be stored in
memory. You
                  need to specify /P with this switch.

The result for cmd.exe is quite long (186 lines) and detailed.

Regards,
Frank



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