>> Some experimentation shows that Python does seem to provide >> *some* translation. Windows lets me use '/' as a path separator, >> but not as the name of the root of a partition name. But perhaps >> this a peculiarity of the commands themselves, and not of Windows >> path names in particular. >> >> C:\PYTHON24>CD / >> The syntax of the command is incorrect. >> >> C:\PYTHON24>CD \ >> C:\>EDIT /PYTHON24/README >> The syntax of the command is incorrect. > > The Windows APIs all accept either forward slashes or back, and have done > so clear back to Windows 3.0. However, the Windows command shells do not. > That's what you're seeing here.
What one finds is that the command-shell is self-inconsistant: C:\temp>md foo C:\temp>md foo\bar C:\temp>cd foo/bar C:\temp\foo\bar>cd .. C:\temp\foo>cd .. C:\temp>cd /foo/bar C:\temp\foo\bar>cd \temp C:\temp>md foo/baz The syntax of the command is incorrect C:\temp>echo dir > foo/bar/pip C:\temp>echo dir > /foo/bar/pip The system cannot find the path specified. C:\temp>dir foo/bar Parameter format not correct - "bar". C:\temp>dir /b foo\bar pip C:\temp>type foo/bar/pip The syntax of the command is incorrect. C:\temp>type foo\bar\pip dir C:\temp>cmd < foo/bar/pip [directory listing within a subshell] C:\temp>cmd < /foo/bar/pip The system cannot find the path specified. The CD, MD, TYPE, ECHO and redirection are all shell-builtins, yet they seem to be conflictingly quasi-smart about forward slashes. Sometimes leading slashes matter. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes forward slashes are acceptable. Sometimes they aren't. All within the shell's built-in mechanisms. Go figure. -tkc -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list