Message-Id: <199711270314.TAA14840@mail-gw3.pacbell.net> Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Nathan Roberts" To: opendos AT delorie DOT com Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 19:15:08 +0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: DIR switch bitch Reply-to: nathanr AT pacbell DOT net In-reply-to: <199711270016.RAA26213@kewlaid.highfiber.com> Precedence: bulk > May I vent a little about the DIR command? It's annoyed me since DR DOS 6.0 > that DIR is absolutely incapable of displaying files and subdirectories with > the 'hidden' bit set. (Rest of rant deleted) This is an annoyance point with me as well. Many times I have tried to show a directory of hidden files, or of directories only, etc, and usually not only can I not get the internal DIR command to do what I want, I usually first try to enter an MS-DOS sytle command such as DIR /AH or DIR /AD. I have another complaint about the DIR command; it doesn't have any sort function. My preference is to have the DIR command display files sorted with directories first, then sorted by extension and then by filename. DIR doesn't offer any way to sort files, and the output (and the command syntax, for that matter) od the XDIR command is very awkward. My solution thus far is to use a substitute directory program that I've written in Pascal when I need to sort the directory, display attributes (or directories), or search subdirectories for files. However, I would prefer to see these essential (IMHO) features in the internal DIR command. If anyone else is interested in my DIR substitute program (called D), let me know, and I'll throw together some docs, and make it available on my web page. I wrote it when I was working with a DOS 3.0 machine at school, where the DIR command was even less functional than OpenDOS's DIR command. D is actually more powerful than the MS-DOS DIR command, as it supports more features than the DOS 5.0 DIR command. It will display directories in 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 columns, optionally supresses display of the . and .. directories, optionally shows attributes, optionally shows commas in the file sizes, optionally supress display of filenames (show summary only), optionally supress display of the summary, and can display several wildcard filespecs at once. --- Nathan Roberts http://home.pacbell.net/nathanr Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you'll be a mile away and have his shoes.