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BATCH PROGRAMMING ELEMENTS
A collection of batch language enhancers in batch language
Collected by Dirk van Deun
Programs and longer quotations (re)published with permission
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"In der Beschraenkung zeigt sich erst der Meister." (Goethe)
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If you want extra information, if you have found a bug or
developed a better routine, mail me at dvandeun at vub.ac.be
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Date of last revision: June 7, 1996
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PROLEGOMENA
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Not all batch files in this collection are easy too understand for the
beginner. If you are not already a batch file fanatic, it might be better
to read http://student.vub.ac.be/~dvandeun/batvirus.all first, which
contains quite a few useful digressions which I did not repeat here.
However, all batch files in this text can be understood with the help of
your MS-DOS manual, if you know these three undocumented or barely
documented facts:
1. Starting a line with :: has the same function as starting a line with
REM, only it executes faster, because REM is a DOS command, and DOS
preprocesses it (interpreting >, file creates a 0 byte
file, and :: > file doesn't.
2. FOR %a IN (/ABCD) is functionally equivalent with FOR %a IN (A BCD):
in a FOR argument DOS splits a word preceded with a slash in two parts:
the first letter, and the rest. If you do not see the use of this, note
that the slash can also be used with variables and command line
parameters: in FOR %a IN (/%VAR%), %VAR% is interpreted first, and then
the first...