Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!djfiander
From: djfiander@watnot.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: stupid COMMAND.COM  (WAS:  DOS enviroment size)
Message-ID: <12559@watnot.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Mar-87 15:17:09 EST
Article-I.D.: watnot.12559
Posted: Thu Mar  5 15:17:09 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Mar-87 00:48:50 EST
References: <2091@ncoast.UUCP> <409500003@prism> <2986@iuvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: djfiander@watnot.UUCP (David Fiander)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 27
Keywords: DOS environment substitutions

>>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.
>
>But Microsoft, in their ultimate wisdom....
>

Something that I discovered after getting the MKS toolkit (before they
had KSH ready for release) was that it is physically impossible to
pass certain characters to a program on the commandline, specifically
" ' * ? | etc.

Once again Microsoft could not forsee _any_ possible reason that a program
would want to see one of these characters.

Obviously this cut down on the usefulness of things like sed, egrep,
find, and so on.

-- 
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work.
I want to achieve immortality through not dying"
	- Woody Allen

UUCP  : {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utzoo,clyde}!watmath!watnot!djfiander
CSNET : djfiander%watnot@waterloo.CSNET