X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to djgpp-bounces using -f X-Authentication-Warning: itservs.wilkes.edu: apache set sender to fdonahoe AT wilkes DOT edu using -f Message-ID: <1095726241.414f74a158df1@webmail.wilkes.edu> Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 20:24:01 -0400 From: fdonahoe AT wilkes DOT edu To: Eli Zaretskii Cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: ANNOUNCE: DJGPP port of GNU libmatheval 1.1.0 uploaded MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: Internet Messaging Program (IMP) 3.2 X-Originating-IP: 146.94.1.204 Quoting Eli Zaretskii : > > 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This mail was sent through Wilkes Webmail: http://webmail.wilkes.edu Wilkes Webmail is using IMP: http://horde.org/imp/