Date:	Fri, 13 Jun 1997 09:14:42 +1200
From:	physmsa AT cantua DOT canterbury DOT ac DOT nz (Mr M S Aitchison)
Subject:	command.com compatibility
To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com
Message-id:	<199706122114.JAA00150@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz>

I know some undocumented features of command.com from MSDOS aren't in
DRDOS/Novell DOS/OpenDOS.  I don't remember all of the oddities, but
one from Timo Salmi's batch files (TSB*.ZIP) involved the effect
putting a "/" after the "(" in a FOR loop had on splitting a parameter
(e.g. to find the extension in a filename).  I'm pretty sure 4DOS
implements this, but I checked Win95 and it seems this version of
command.com now does something else - it converts the parameter to
uppercase (yet doesn't split the first character off as in old
versions).


I know that it is unwise to use undocumented features, but...

(a) what do you think OpenDOS should do - it cannot be compatible with
    both MS options (and at present isn't compatible with either, although
    it does do what I would think is "sensible"). Ideally there should be
    a compatibility flag that can be set, but what should the default be?

(b) Does anybody have a list of other undocumented COMMAND.COM "features"?

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Mark Aitchison, Physics & Astronomy   \_  Phone : +64 3 3642-947 a.h. 3371-225
University of Canterbury,             </  Fax   : +64 3 3642-469  or  3642-999
Christchurch, New Zealand.           /)   E-mail: phys169 AT csc DOT canterbury DOT ac DOT nz
#include <disclaimer.std>           (/'   Callsign: ZL3TQE
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