Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1999 14:42:45 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
X-Sender: eliz AT is
To: david sharp <dsharp AT interport DOT net>
cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Help with allegro!!!
In-Reply-To: <36D73D70.384F@interport.net>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.990228144222.5950c-100000@is>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com


On Fri, 26 Feb 1999, david sharp wrote:

> > Why is it saying  "c:/" when the "/" is not used in dos? What could be the
> > problem?
> 
> a bug with djgpp is that it allows "/" in place of "\".

Actually, this is not a bug, but a very important feature.

First, all Microsoft OSes, beginning from DOS 2.0 and including
Windows 9X and NT, can handle both '/' and `\' as directory
separators, without any trouble.  So you can safely pass file names
with '/' to the OS calls and they will just work.  Application
programs, mainly those supplied by MS with the systems, don't usually
support '/', but that's because their application code was
deliberately written that way.

And second, using '/' allows for easy porting of Unix software that
many times chokes on DOS-style backslashes.

DJGPP applications usually support both styles of slashes, even if
they are mixed, like in c:\djgpp\bin/ld.exe.

> my first suggestion is to complain to those actually responsible for
> these bugs.

I would rather expect people to say thanks for this feature.  Now, if
you find a DJGPP application that does NOT support both styles of
slashes, *then* please complain.