Windows paths (was RE: re open and read commands)

[Kenneth Brody]

Quoting Bill Campbell (Mon, 3 Dec 2007 09:39:17 -0800):

> On Mon, Dec 03, 2007, Kenneth Brody wrote:
[...]
>> The Windows (and DOS) versions of filePro have always allowed either
>> slash in filenames.  This is because MS-DOS and Windows have always
>> allowed either slash.
>
> I think it's only command.com that requires the backward slashes,

Not just command.com, but some utilities as well.  The "kernel" took
either slash, but some programs parsed "/" as a flag.

> a relic
> of the fact that MS-DOS was basically a port of CP/M to the 80x86 chip, and
> CP/M used forward slashes for options, much like *nix uses ``-''.  About
> the only thing different between the earliest versions of M$-DOS and CP/M
> was that CP/M used the PIP command to copy files with the destination file
> as the first argument, and M$-DOS used COPY with the arguments in logical
> order.

MS-DOS even had the "CALL 5" interface available.  In fact, so does my
XP box, when running 16-bit .COM binaries.  I wouldn't be surprised if
Vista has it as well.

-- 
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