Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!slxsys!ibmpcug!mantis!tony From: tony@mantis.co.uk (Tony Lezard) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc Subject: Re: Where is the long awaited MS DOS 5.0 ? Message-ID: Date: 3 Jan 91 13:46:39 GMT Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK. Lines: 27 In article <10110@lanl.gov>, crs@lanl.gov (Charlie Sorsby) writes: >I'd much rather, for example, type "mv" than "RENAME." REN will do. So will ren. There's a minus point of Unix for you: Commands should be case-insensitive. After all, it's the same sequence of letters and it's pronounced the same, isn't it? So why should I have to worry about the state of my Caps Lock key? (Which, on this keyboard anyway, is easy to hit accidentally.) >I've a question about DOS: Is there a real reason for the choice >of switch character ("/") and path-element separator ("\")? Or >was the choice made gratuitously (or, worse, just to be different >from Unix)? I've always assumed that, since in some cases it's >possible to use the Unix counterparts, that the choice was >arbitrary. In some ways, I find that more of a pain than the >baroque paths of VMS--the ??-DOS paths are enough like those of >Unix that I tend to type them as Unix paths--those of VMS are >enough different that I don't do that, I just hate to type them. Naah. The "/" character is a well-recognised way of specifying command line options. Many systems use it. Hence a command such as "DOS\CHKDSK/F" will succeed in passing a parameter "F" to the program "CHKDSK" in directory "DOS". -- Tony Lezard. E-mail: tony@mantis.co.uk, Snail: Mantis Consultants, Unit 56, St. John's Innovation Centre, Cambridge, CB4 4WS, United Kingdom. Voice: +44 223 421094. Most appropriate anagram of name: Lazy Rodent.