tim@seismo.UUCP (10/09/83)
I have found a few problems with DOS 2.0, and I was wondering if anybody
else has the same ones or some experience in solving them. If I do alot
of applications in which I redirect standard output to the printer, then
I start getting the message "EXEC failure" or "file creation error" and
I can do nothing else until I reboot. I have had to avoid using the
redirection.
The batch command
if AB == A dir
will cause an error. For that matter, any time that the second argument
argument is an initial segment of the first argument, you will get this
error. I believe that what is happening is that COMMAND.COM is doing
a string comparison, and the "AB" is getting compared with the string
"A dir". In other words, it assumes that the length of the second
argument is always at least as long as the first argument. Then, of
course, it does not find any command, and this is an error. One is
lead to wonder why they check for a command in the first place if the
condition is not met.
A solution to the above problem is to add many spaces before the command.
if AB == A dir
will cause "AB" to be compared to "A " and the command will still be
parsed correctly.