[Coco] 'arc' copy command and Stack Overflow (ERROR #207)

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 27 January 2015 07:31:34 Bill Pierce via Coco did opine
And Gene did reply:
> I don't know why that particular version of tmode was used in the repo,
> but tmode with that syntax has existed since before the repo existed.
> Boisy may have changed the repo version, but he modeled it after
> another version which had been on delphi since the late 80s at least.
> The reason I say this, is that I have the very same tmode on OS9
> floppy disks of cmds downloaded from Delphi dated back to 1988 or 1989
> containing tmode with the exact same sytax as the one currently on the
> repo disks.
> 
> Ultimuse3 shell's out to tmode to turn echo on and off. In 1988 or
> 1989, I had to make sure that I had the Tandy/MW version of tmode on
> any disk I was using for Ultimuse3 and UBox3 or it would show errors
> everytime tmode was called. I remember having to go back to my master
> disks and getting the old tmode just for that purpose. And I never
> owned NitrOS9 or had any of it's contents until it was released to
> open source. So this was actually a problem long before Boisy changed
> it in the repo.
> 
> One of the first things I did after finally being able to compile the
> Ultimuse3 sources was to add in a built in tmode so that the problem
> no longer existed in that software It took all of 12 lines of code to
> do the getstat/setstat calls for echo or pause. My new release of
> Ultimuse3 no longer requires any form of tmode just for that very
> reason.
> 
> Personally, I like the newer tmode as it's less typing. It just breaks
> compatability with programs that 'assume' every user is going to have
> a certain cmd version in their CMDS folder. I hate software that does
> this. If you are going to use external cmds, then include them. Don't
> expect me to conform to your habits.

Hear hear Bill.  Change just for the sake of change that breaks existing 
software should be approached with the Linus Torvald attitude.  Such 
changes are allowed into linux ONLY if they are legit security fixes that 
cannot be fixed any other way. And as the dictator of what goes into the 
kernel, has has gotten into some pretty profane exchanges with developers 
who think its ok to break existing software.

I objected to the dsave changes that were made, many years ago now, 
because it broke existing usage.  But once you get used to it, it does 
work better.  But it took me a decade to get used to it. But I did get 
extremely frustrated with another of our utilities that dsave uses, 
makdir, erroring out if the directory already existed. So I fixed makdir 
so that it now longer outputs the error if its an already exist error.
To me, if the directory already exists, the object has been accomplished 
and no error need be reported, so now dsave can be run in a mode that does 
stop on a real error.  However, rather than having it shell out, where 
that would work, I find it more convenient to save its output as a script, 
edit if needed, and run the script.

> In writing MShell, there are NO
> external cmds required as ALL modules needed for the software are
> included either in the code or as external modules custom designed for
> MShell. Mshell can be installed to a cmds dir containing nothing but
> grfdrv and shell (both being required by the system) and it will run.
 
This is also a Good Thing(TM).
 
> Bill Pierce
> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
> 
> 
> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS