Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!gvgpsa!gvgspd!mrk
From: mrk@gvgspd.UUCP (Michael R. Kesti)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Microsoft linker and /
Keywords: link delimiters patch
Message-ID: <434@gvgspd.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jan 88 17:38:27 GMT
References: <363@vilya.UUCP> <105@ucrmath.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrk@gvgspd.UUCP (Michael R. Kesti)
Organization: Grass Valley Group, Grass Valley, CA
Lines: 45

In article <105@ucrmath.UUCP> baumann@hope.UUCP (Michael Baumann) writes:
>I was playing around with MASM 5.0 and the DOS INT21 functions and came
>across a possible solution for those that find '\' as a file seperator
>a true pain. Use INT 21 function 37 (set switch char) to reset the switch
>character to '-'. This has the delightful side effect of allowing the use
>of the forward slash '/' as a file seperator.

Yes, this does what Michael says, but is not without it's problems.

First, this is an undocumented feature, and could therefore be removed by
uSoft at any time.

Second, not all programs will use the complementary call (read switch char)
and therefore will expect the switch char to be "/" and the directory
separator to be "\" and can get very confused if you have set them to
otherwise.  One good example is the FA (file attributes) program in the
Norton utilities (I use version 3.?, your milage may vary).  This program
uses "+" and "-" to indicate whether the specified attribute is to be set or
cleared, for example:

	fa foo.bar /a+

turns the archive bit on, while

	fa foo.bar /a-

turns it off.  Now, when the switch char is "-", these become:

	fa foo.bar -a+ (no problem here)

and
	fa foo.bar -a-

which drives fa crazy (actually, it just returns an error message, but you
get the point, right?).

I have found it best to leave this matter alone and just get used to it!

				Michael

-- 
============================================================================
Michael Kesti  Grass Valley Group, Inc. | "Like one and one don't make two,
P.O. Box 1114  Grass Valley, CA  95945  |  one and one make one."
UUCP:	...!tektronix!gvgpsa!gvgspd!mrk |                - The Who, Bargain