As far as I can tell, the DIR verb doesn't show
helpful results in D3 on windows. If you agree,
I suggest we all decatalog it to more clearly
show what's going on when you do

dir c:\pickbu*

by mistake, intending to do

!dir c:\pickbu*

As it stands, TCL gripes about the backslash
not being matched with another. Backslashes
act as a variety of quote mark, as in

display \Hello, O'world!\

"Frank Winans" <fwinans (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote

Ah, I see now,
DIR FONTS
shows what's in this account's fonts file {or dict?}
....nothing to do with the native OS filesystem side.
No wonder I could never get the verb to show a
folder out there in F:\

I still hate the verb, but at least it isn't outright broken.

The DIR verb is a hangover from AP/PRO and maybe AP/NATIVE. Like many
verbs in the MD it doesn't even apply to current platforms. This code
tells the story:

* imp is the platform running this code
if imp = 'at-native' or imp = 'at-pro' else
execute 'listfiles 'ath:' (f'ptions
stop
end


I think a good rule of thumb is that if you find a verb that you
haven't used in 12 years, it doesn't appear to be working now, and you
hate it anyway ... just ignore it. There's no reason to campaign for
a mass removal of the verb which apparently isn't bothering anyone
else either. Decataloging from one account doesn't do anything for
other accounts except return an 'object code missing' error, and does
nothing for new accounts or post-upgrade updates. No, better to just
ignore it. If it's that important to you personally, change the above
execute to:
execute '!dir 'ath

T

"Frank Winans" wrote:

"Tony Gravagno" wrote
time testing out a cranky verb... Thanks for another stellar reply -- I
usually don't post a follow-on to your posts because they're, well,
unassailably correct. Just tacking a 'thanks' on the end of a thread feels
like a misuse of bandwidth. Guess I spent too much time with
punched paper/mylar storage media and 110 baud modems...
So frame this one as a sort of macro...

"Frank Winans" wrote:
LOL, and then there are times when I'm flat out brain fartin wrong.

Thanks for the note. We should all kill a few bits to thank our
friends here now and then - at least until the bandwidth police start
charging us extra for unreasonably excessive expressions of gratitude.


T