Path: utzoo!censor!geac!maccs!cs4g6ag
From: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Why is comma delimiter in batch files?
Keywords: batch MSDOS
Message-ID: <25A26664.27618@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 3 Jan 90 20:53:56 GMT
References: <3445@cbnewsl.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Lines: 29

In article <3445@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> rl@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (roger.h.levy) writes:
$My question: Is there a way to convince batch files to think of the comma
$as part of the parameter, i.e. to regard only blanks as delimiters so as
$to be consistent with c programs?

   Well, on the command line you can surround strings with quotes and
that will cause any special characters in them to be treated as normal
characters instead (e.g. you can type
echo "Three is greater than two:  3>2"
and DOS will respond with
"Three is greater than two:  3>2"
or at least it will on my generic MS-DOS 3.20)
and I would imagine that this will remove the special connotation from
the comma.

   The reason why your C program and the batch file respond differently
is due to what it is that parses the input string.  For the batch file,
the string is parsed by COMMAND.COM using its idea of what a delimiter
is.  For the C program, the parsing is done by the C0.OBJ code using
its idea of what a delimiter is (the command tail passed to the C program
is passed straight to the program with the exception of redirection being
removed so that it's transparent to the program).  If the two don't agree,
you can have problems such as you show in your original article.

-- 
Stephen M. Dunn                               cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
          <std_disclaimer.h> = "\nI'm only an undergraduate!!!\n";
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    If it's true that love is only a game//Well, then I can play pretend