Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!bu-cs!bucsb.bu.edu!madd
From: madd@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: DOS enviroment size
Message-ID: <806@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Mar-87 17:22:09 EST
Article-I.D.: bucsb.806
Posted: Tue Mar  3 17:22:09 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Mar-87 23:31:36 EST
References: <2091@ncoast.UUCP> <409500003@prism> <2986@iuvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: madd@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP (Jim "Jack" Frost)
Organization: ODO (Organization for the Disorganization of Organization)
Lines: 29
Keywords: DOS environment substitutions

In article <475@omepd> perry@inteloa.intel.com (Perry The Cynic) writes:
[deleted stuff on setting DOS path]
>For some inscrutable reason, environment substitutions (%name%) work only
>during batch file execution. If you try them on the keyboard, it just ignores
>you...

This is a result of an idiot designing the COMMAND.COM processor.
Whomever designed it decided that you would only want to use the
expansion when you were exectuing batch files.  Of course, we all know
that you often would like to do something like:

	set home=\very\long\path
        dir %home%
	erase %home%
	rmdir %home%

But Microsoft, in their ultimate wisdom....

(I've designed several command processors, some very very much more
talented than the DOS processor, and it really should have been hard
to disable the capability.  Therefore I assume it was done
deliberately for some unspecified reason.)

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
                   - Jim Frost * The Madd Hacker -
UUCP:  ..!harvard!bu-cs!bucsb!madd | ARPANET: madd@bucsb.bu.edu
CSNET: madd%bucsb@bu-cs            | BITNET:  cscc71c@bostonu
-------------------------------+---+------------------------------------
"Oh beer, oh beer." -- Me      |      [=(BEER) <- Bud the Beer (cheers!)