Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Data compression algorithms
Message-ID: <14468@bfmny0.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jul 89 21:46:37 GMT
References: <16942.24BD4537@urchin.fidonet.org>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: ^
Lines: 16

One should not confuse the set of filenames MS-DOS will create and
access (via its INT 21H system calls) with the subset thereof that the
default shell COMMAND.COM is prepared to parse from your command line.
Using MS-DOS calls you can create a file using almost any characters
except '.' and NUL - the former delimits the name/extension boundary and
the latter denotes end of string.  (DOS 2.0+ routines assumed here.)
Several vendors take advantage of this to put strange filenames in their
directories, to keep Joe Dumb User from fooling with them or to avoid
innocent name space collisions.  COMMAND.COM, on the other hand, when it
parses your ASCII command line to extract things like filenames, has far
stricter rules.

This isn't really comp.lang.c but what the heck.
-- 
"My God, Thiokol, when do you     \\	Tom Neff
want me to launch -- next April?"  \\	uunet!bfmny0!tneff