Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!madd
From: madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Joy of MSDOS
Message-ID: <20769@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 20 Mar 88 19:45:37 GMT
References: <3aee6925.44e6@apollo.uucp> <9429@sunybcs.UUCP>
Reply-To: madd@bu-it.bu.edu (Jim Frost)
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Organization: Boston University Distributed Systems Group
Lines: 54

In article <9429@sunybcs.UUCP> ugfailau@sunybcs.UUCP (Fai Lau) writes:
>In article <3aee6925.44e6@apollo.uucp> nelson_p@apollo.uucp writes:
>>
>>  Is there any way to create batch files that don't echo 
>>  their contents to the screen?

There are patches for every version of MS-DOS that do this; sorry I
don't have them online.  Check local BBS's  -- they're pretty well
publicized.  All that's required is the changing of an internal flag
in COMMAND.COM.  Why Microsoft didn't allow the user to set the
default state is beyond me, but then again uSoft seems to have a track
record of not recognizing the needs of their users for unreasonably
long periods of time.

>>  Why does the PATH command only apply to some kinds of files
>>  and not others?   If you're going to have a 'where to look'
>>  feature for the computer why limit the types of files it 
>>  applies to? 
>
>	Hummmm, Dos 3.20 has been good to me in that it does look
>through the whold path for a file to be executed. One thing though,
>when an executable looks for a "slave" file (like an overlay),
>it doesn't even know that the path exists!!!

The PATH command is used to specify a search path of subdirectories
for commands, not data.  There are a lot of reasons for doing it this
way, not the least of them being the segregation of different data
file types by directory.  It would be messy to have one
wordprocessor pull up the .DOC file for another, for example.  It's
easier to allow the user to specify the path for data files.  If you
need to access a file without a path when you're in a different
directory (some applications don't recognize paths), use the SUBST
command, which allows you to substitute a drive name for a path.  Read
the manual for a more detailed description.

As for overlay location, there are a variety of methods used by
applications to find files that they require.  Under MS-DOS 3.10 or
greater, programs can get the path of the executable from the PSP
(Program Segment Prefix).  This is more or less documented in the Disk
Operating System Technical Manual.  With earlier versions, searching
the path for the needed files can be used.  PC-WRITE is one
application that appears to use this method.  Most commonly programs
either require a specific path for their files (root seems to be
common, which is annoying) or have an installation program with which
you specify the path (Borland's programs often use this method).

I've seen several utilities that will give you path-search for data
files, but I've found them of limited use.  It's annoying to pull up a
junk file from another directory when you really wanted to create a
new one in the current directory.  With extra functionality comes
extra problems.

jim frost
madd@bu-it.bu.edu