X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to opendos-bounces using -f Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 01:58:29 +1000 (EST) From: DONALD PEDDER To: opendos AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: confirm before over-write In-Reply-To: <3F74E134.3996.B901C43@localhost> Message-ID: References: <3F74A806 DOT 30284 DOT AB8785C AT localhost> <3F74E134 DOT 3996 DOT B901C43 AT localhost> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com Errors-To: nobody AT delorie DOT com X-Mailing-List: opendos AT delorie DOT com X-Unsubscribes-To: listserv AT delorie DOT com Precedence: bulk > > Again, compatability can be maintained by having it switched off by > > default, but that's no reason to dis-able it from being switched on when > > desired. > > Again, it's not a matter of "switched off". It's a matter of the option > *not existing*. "switched off", "not exisitng" - whatever words you use, it's not there (unlike most packages). > > Compatability doesn't demand it be permanently disabled (only Bill > > trying to get people to stop using DOS dictates things getting > > permanently disabled - and in trying to get people away from MS, > > DR-DOS should be as flexible as possible to enhance it's appeal). > > Again, you are *assuming* that the intended market is home use. Where have I assumed that? I stated that DOS/Windows was part of the push to get personal use of computers (which was demonstrably successful) - that was 20 years ago. Today Bill Gates' intention is to get rid of DOS altogether, and Lineo was pushing for the embedded systems market (I don't know about the latest owners). As I said, if you want to make as much money as possible, you have to make your product as attractive as possible. Home use is PART of the market, so the better it is for home use, the more money you're likely to make. Personal use is cream on top of the business cake. > True enough. But that's why my backup routines went > like this: > > Backup to tape > Verify backups And sometimes backups become un-usable even after a successful verification. People shouldn't have to rely on backups. They are just that - a back-up, a back-up plan. Plan B. What you resort to when Plan A doesn't work. That's why they're called "backups". > The IBM PC was designed as an "under the table" project by some IBM > engineers. When Visicalc got the Apple into businesses in a big way, IBM > management started looking for a "personal computer" that could be sold > to both buisiness and home, but they expected the real money to be > business users. My understanding is that IBM wanted to get into the growing personal computer market (having only manufactured business machines before - I.B.M., International Business Machines - mainframes and mid-ranges). They might've wanted to sell it to business too, and maybe even get more money from business, but the aim was still to get into the personal market. Get some cream on top of the cake. Having a computer that could be sold to both business and personal users is a change to what they'd done before, which was only sell to business. IBM wanted a presence in the personal computer market, and DOS/Windows was central to that project. Whether it's a minor share or not, DOS was aimed at a market that includes personal users (and should therefore be able to be programmed in a suitable way). > I just checked a DOS reference manual (that covered versions from 1.0 on > up thru 3.3) and the *only* options for copy were /A, /B and /V. MS-DOS (Win95) has prompting by default (I know, because I just checked it by actually doing an xcopy), PINE has prompting by default, FTP has prompting by default - DR-DOS is the ONLY tool I am currently using which doesn't prompt for confirmation before overwrite. > I checked the PC-DOS 4.01 and MS-DOS 5.01 manuals and had no luck > either. The Novell DOS 6.0 manual lists /c as the switch for > confirmation. I am pretty sure that when I was using 6 point something, it was there by default (but that was a while ago). > And that does work in DR-DOS 7.03. I had missed it before because 4dos > uses /C for "copy changed files only" Aha! It's not showing up, so after all this arg... er, spirited discussion, :-) the ultimate answer to my question is that the option DOES exist (although it's not the default), but it's undocumented. Is there a way to make it the default? I don't have any experience with undocumented features (obviously I can't look it up if it's undocumented). Thanks for finding that for me. I was going to try and see if I had any disks still for 6.whatever, since I was sure it was there, but now you've found it for me. > Alas, since copy is built into command.com, you can't use the batch file > dodge to "force" the /c. I don't understand. Are you saying that "copy ... .... /c" in a batch file won't work? Why not? Confused. thanks, dp.