From: Erik Max Francis Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: Output to the Printer Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 20:35:53 -0800 Organization: Alcyone Systems Lines: 24 Message-ID: <3328D5A9.59B1D0E6@alcyone.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: newton.alcyone.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Eli Zaretskii wrote: > Nope, it's "COMx" and "LPTx" (no colons). The short program that I > posted in this thread also fails for "LPT1:", but works for "LPT1". > > Generally, DOS disallows file names with a colon (except as part of > d:pathname), so it's not surprising that the colon doesn't work in > device names. This is interesting, because originally with DOS, the intention was the opposite. A, B, C, D, etc. are all devices; so are CON, PRN, LPT1, COM1, etc. The idea is if you want to refer to these devices, you suffix them with a colon. In the case of devices which contain filesystems, you can including further stuff to demonstrate where on the device to find them. Is it the BIOS itself that rejects the colons, or what? -- Erik Max Francis, &tSftDotIotE / email: max AT alcyone DOT com Alcyone Systems / web: http://www.alcyone.com/max/ San Jose, California, United States / icbm: 37 20 07 N 121 53 38 W \ "I am become death, / destroyer of worlds." / J. Robert Oppenheimer (quoting legend)