Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!emory!ogicse!orstcs!mist!larsen
From: larsen@mist.cs.orst.edu (Scott Larsen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: / as a dir delimiter
Summary: Actually, found a good way
Message-ID: <16730@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 11 Mar 90 09:21:10 GMT
References: <1794@crash.cts.com>
Sender: usenet@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU
Reply-To: larsen@mist.CS.ORST.EDU (Scott Larsen)
Organization: Oregon State Univ. -- Computer Science
Lines: 40


In message <1794@crash.cts.com>, Eric W. Lund <elund@pro-graphics.cts.com>
writes:

> ARGH!  Not another UNIX convert!  You're absolutely right, MS-DOS stinks ...
> now go back to UNIX.  We already know the limits of DOS!  Anyhow, I am aware
> of the problems the "double" backslash caused by MS-DOS C source ... yes it's
> a pain.  My solution:  Get used to it.  This is not UNIX, and the only way to
> do many things is incredibly hard, incompatible and disastrous.  You'd
> probably have to go change COMMAND.COM itself ... DO NOT DO IT!  Please just
> get used to this crappy operating system or go back to unix.  It's not good to
> give ideas to MS-DOS users.  
> 
> I hear it now, "But he says in unix he can ..."

While although I agree that some source code may still cause a problem,
I don't ever think that giving up is a rational reaction to a problem.
And as a matter of fact, I received and unearthed many ideas, one of which,
was to try the 4DOS command interpreter, a far superior interpreter than
command.com.  Another is the fact that MS-DOS does recognize the forward
slash as a directory delimiter, but the switch character is, by default,
set to that character.  All you have to do is a 21h interrupt to change the
default switch character to, say a -, then dos will catch the "/" as a 
directory delimiter, and not a command option.

All in all, I was rather disappointed by this attitude.  Just complaining,
and not testing out possibilities ("DO NOT DO IT!") is a rather backwards
way of going about scientific research, don't you think?  No
experimentation, no attempts, no success, no failure.  I would hate to
think of what our science would be like today if Newton, Fermi, Bohr,
Mendel, Edison, and Tesla never did any experiments.  Current limits,
or problems can only show us the places that need improvement and more
study.

-Scott Larsen
larsen@cs.orst.edu                       UUCP: hplabs!hp-pcd!orstcs!larsen
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