#Wild cards
10 messages in this thread
Regarding Amigas wildcards, etc.. You might want to note that other
operating systems in place long before MSDOS, used the forward slash.
MSDOS kind of invented it's own convention. Unix for one, is a prime
example. The Amiga wildcard system is much more usable. Besides, like
you said, you can use utilities to get the * functionality. I don't
personally because I find AmigaDOS's implementation much more powerful.
-Jonathan
Do you know why DOS uses the "\" instead of the "/" – it was because the first
version of DOS had a flat directory (no subdirectories) and IBM decided to use
"/" to separate command line options ("dir /w /one") So, when they added
sub-directories, they chose "\" because they didn't want to confuse users.
I realize you don't care, but there it is anyway.
Michael:
I was under the impression that when MS-DOS had a flat filesystem it still
hadn't been bought by Microsoft yet, let along IBM. So I don't think we
can blame IBM for the \ character.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Nah – DOS 1 was flat. Remember, the original PC was 64k and had a tape drive
(cassette tape, that is) for storage.
Michael:
Yes, it sure did, but what I'm saying is we can't blame IBM for that,
that's how they got it. Don't get me wrong, it is/was/will always be a
lame OS compared to AmigaDOS.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Mike,
We certainly CAN blame IBM for the '\'. MS-DOS in the early days would
accept either. It was IBM who 'insisted' on the '\'.
Right! Up through 3.x at least, MS-DOS had an undocumented routine to change
the switch character. I found out that if you changed it to, say, "-", you
could use "/" in pathnames. I also found out that it liked things like
"/dev/prn" for the printer just fine…
Vic:
Oh, well in that case… You do of course realise that we're all wrong,
and IBM is right, after all they are I B M, and after all, didn't they
invent computers in the first place? 🙂
Actually there are a couple of packages out now that allow you to use the
forward slash "/" instead of the \ on MSDOS, and I think there's even
something that extends the filenames out to 32 characters or so, although
I don't know how they do that.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Interesting historical trivia. It still makes it a terrible OS.
-Jonathan