Mail Archives: opendos/1997/12/01/16:25:39
> @ CALL comp.com %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
Hey, this is neat! Good thinking.
> If I right understand, you not understand me - may be because
> you forget: "if errorlevel <n>" check return code for equal _or
> greater_ than <n>, so
I see what you mean - COMP in OpenDOS doesn't return an errorlevel
to help you decide if two files are the same... OS/2 has this nice
feature and I don't think it would cause incompatibilities to add
this to OpenDOS.
Which brings me to an important question:
Is there a current "wish list" that Caldera are taking notice of?
If so, could I add a request for the following minor enhancements...
1. COMMAND.COM should look at the first line of batch files and
invoke a seperate program if the file begins with "#!" (as per
Unix) to allow perl, etc scripts. Ditto for detecting Rexx
scripts as per OS/2. This shouldn't increase the size of the
program much, yet allow us to have identical script commands
on multiple platforms.
2. COMMAND.COM should pre-process command lines by looking for "[!"
and taking the rest of the line, up to the corresponding "]" as a
command which is to be executed first, its standard output then
inserted into the main command at that spot. This is instead of the
Unix syntax (e.g. dir `which comp`) and uses the syntax of Data
General's AOS becaus eteh Unix synatx could be incompatible (it is
unlikely people would alreadu use the two-character "[!" sequence)
and because the method using "`" is confusing and cannot easily be
nested). Being able to do this, especially in a SET or IF is an
amazingly powerful facility, and one which I most miss in DOS.
3. COMMAND.COM could interpret elements in the path having trailing "/"
characters as meaning "this is possibly a Unix directory" to look for
the command without extension as well as .com, .bat and /exe files (or
provide an alternative way of enabling/disabling extensions in path
searches). Ideally, I'd like to be able to enter something like:
PATH C:\DOS;C:\UTES/;%NETDIR%;.;D:\BORLAND\*\BIN;E:\APPS.ZIP;\\fred\apps
4. Is MSDOS-style DIR/S on the "to do" list?? What I would like is for
the internal DIR command to be used only when no command switches are
given (for speed), in other cases it should call an external program
(that we can replace/upgrade). Making the internal commands too fancy
is a problem for RAM footprint. That philosophy could be applied to
DEL, COPY, etc as well.
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Mark Aitchison, \_ Phone: +64 3 364-2947 home 337-1225
Dept of Physics & Astronomy, </ Fax: +64 3 364-2469 or 364-2999
University of Canterbury, /) E-mail: phys169 AT csc DOT canterbury DOT ac DOT nz
Christchurch, NEW ZEALAND. (/' www.phys.canterbury.ac.nz/~physmsa
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