Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!mks!wheels
From: wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Can't get DOS to see new SWITCHAR
Summary: bad news re switchar
Keywords: MS-DOS 4.01, CompuAdd 286, Award BIOS
Message-ID: <763@mks.UUCP>
Date: 12 Apr 89 13:34:16 GMT
References: <1738@leah.Albany.Edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: Mortice Kern Systems, Waterloo, Ont.
Lines: 19

In article <1738@leah.Albany.Edu>, jem97@leah.Albany.Edu (Jim Mower) writes:
> I am unable to get DOS [version 4] commands (cd, dir, etc.) to recognize
> that the switch character has been changed. 

Since the MKS Toolkit also has a command to alter the switch character,
we were also rather dismayed to see this behaviour.  Our only
conclusions are that 1) the (undocumented) system call is still in
place, and 2) the new DOS commands do not use the call to determine the
current setting. Pity.

My own theory is that the call was not intended to be part of DOS in the
first place, but that some programmer with a Unix background added it in
the middle of the night, and Microsoft has been busily removing the code
ever since.  :-)
-- 
     Gerry Wheeler                           Phone: (519)884-2251
Mortice Kern Systems Inc.               UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels
   35 King St. North                             BIX: join mks
Waterloo, Ontario  N2J 2W9                  CompuServe: 73260,1043