Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19990228095111.009818b0@pop.globalserve.net>
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Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1999 09:51:11 -0500
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
From: Paul Derbyshire <pderbysh AT usa DOT net>
Subject: Re: Help with allegro!!!
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.990228144222.5950c-100000@is>
References: <36D73D70 DOT 384F AT interport DOT net>
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

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|