Difference in Batch file and Powerbasic?

[Robert E. Carneal]

If I do this in a batch file....
dir /s/b/n *.fdb
I get this...

C:\Legacy\LegacyFamilyData\Carneal
C:\Presentations\Demo\DemoDataOne

and so on; which is GREAT.
I can sort, show paths, show anything.

But if I do this in Powerbasic:
DoThis$="dir /s/b/n *.fdb"
Shell DoThis$
I get this:

C:\Legacy~1\Legacy~1\Carneal
C:\Presen~1\Demo\Demoda~1

and so on, which makes sorting confusing at times.
Is there an easy way to preserve the long names?

I am curious as to why when the command is executed from a batch
file the data it gets is different from when the command is
executed from inside a Powerbasic program? Anyone know please?

Thank you.

Robert

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[This message has been edited by Robert E. Carneal (edited February 09, 2005).]

[Mel Bishop]

PB/DOS can only digest short file names.

"C:\Presen~1\Demo\Demoda~1" is the SFN representation of
"C:\Presentations\Demo\DemoDataOne"

Your SHELL segment is performing exactly as designed.
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Added: There are some example source code listing in the download
section that extract LFN names from SFN. They will work only if
you are running PB/DOS in a windows environment.


[This message has been edited by Mel Bishop (edited February 09, 2005).]

[Eric Pearson]

Robert --

My first guess is that you are seeing a difference between COMMAND and CMD. Instead of shelling, use Start > Run to start a CMD command prompt box, and try your DIR. Then close that and use Start > Run to start a COMMAND box, and you will see the difference.

You can use a more complex SHELL to specify which command interpreter you want to use, something along the lines of SHELL "COMMAND.COM DIR /S/B/N".

By the way, my company's DOSBox product includes some functions that can help PB/DOS programs deal with long file names.

[ADDED] Also by the way, different versions of Windows behave differently. For example Win9x doesn't accept the /n switch. Be sure to test your program on all of the Windows versions that you'll need to use.

-- Eric Pearson, Perfect Sync Software

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Perfect Sync Development Tools
Perfect Sync Web Site
Contact Us: mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>



[This message has been edited by Eric Pearson (edited February 10, 2005).]