I'm taking a C course and I desire to print the help screen data of the DJGPP MAKE
command for reference purposes and have discovered, what is to me a disturbing flaw.
To establish a frame of reference, I'll explain my understanding using C terminology
that I've been learning in the C course. That is to say input and output of a C
program, produced by a C compiler (and I don't know if MAKE.EXE is produced by a C
compiler), goes through one of these three streams: stdin, stdout, and stderr. The
stderr output stream goes only to the screen and bypasses redirection to files or
ports. I understand that the reason for this is that one does not want error messages
polluting program output which may be input to another program.
Now the problem: I'm able to display some of the help info. by executing the command:
MAKE -?
but not all.
Firstly, there is more information, than will fit in a text mode screen or a DOS
window.
Secondly, I've found it impossible to capture this information; therefore, if there is
a version information at the top, I cannot report it to you. Also, I cannot see
whatever help data there is that scrolls off the top.
As I understand things (as a proficient DOS user) output of a DOS compliant programs
can be "piped", "redirected", or controlled by using symbols of DOS command syntax or
keyboard control codes as follows:
MAKE -? | MORE {to pipe output to MORE which displays one screenful at a time}
MAKE -? >PRN {to redirect output to the local printer}
MAKE -? >temp.txt {to redirect output to a file}
<Ctrl>-S {to pause scrolling action on screen}
Conclusion: The help screen information is being sent to stderr. The basis for my
deduction that output of MAKE -? is going to stderr is simply that DOS controls on the
flow of output are totally ineffective. If output is going to stdout, then these
controls should work - they don't.
Sending command line help information to the stderr, I recognize as a defect or bug,
because such information IS NOT ERROR DATA. Also, if the user cannot redirect the
output or pause it, then the user can never see anything that scrolls off the top of
the screen. I translate this inability/restriction of MAKE to be a defect or "BUG".
MAKE is the first program that I've ever encountered that does not permit it's help
data to be redirected by DOS. I make this report to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> because, as a
user, I have been inconvenienced by this problem and hope to prevent other future
users of DJGPP from having a similar experience.
Thank you for having an interest in addressing bugs and providing a means of reporting
them. I look forward to the new and improved version of MAKE.
_______________
Tim Jensen
P.S. - The readme.1st file tells me that the version, I'm using is 2.03 and by the ftp
site I looked at, that is the latest version.
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