[boost] Re: dir_it library on Windows

From: Ross Smith (ross.s_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-01-11 15:47:25

Mike Morearty wrote:
> 
> Also, a less important bug: the old ".com" extension from DOS does
> still work, and does still indicate an executable.

The list you suggest (.EXT, .COM, .BAT) is enough under Win95/98, but
not NT/2000. For a start, there's .CMD, which indicates a Win32 (as
opposed to DOS) batch file.

There's also the environment variable PATHEXT (undocumented, as far as I
know; I can't remember where I heard about it). If it's defined, it
contains a semicolon-delimited list of executable suffixes. Mine reads:

    .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH

(I didn't put all those there myself; I suspect MS Office dunnit.)
People who have installed scripting tools ported from Unix often add the
likes of .PL and .PY to the list. (This is NT/2K only, not 95/98.)

> _WINDOWS should be changed to _WIN32.  This is kind of subtle and
> confusing.  With the Visual C++ integrated development environment,
> when you create a project for any GUI application, it will define
> _WINDOWS for that application.  However, that does not indicate
> Windows in general -- rather, it indicates a GUI application as
> opposed to a console application.  If you use the development
> environment to create a console application, it will not define
> _WINDOWS -- instead, it will define _CONSOLE.
> 
> _WIN32, on the other hand, is defined by the compiler itself (not the
> development environment).  That means _WIN32 will always work for
> everyone who uses Visual C++, even if they wrote their own makefile by
> hand, or used the development environment to create a console app.

Yes, _WIN32 is the accepted "check this to see if you're a Windows
program" macro. As far as I know, all Windows compilers define it
(unlike _WINDOWS).

But note that _WIN32 won't be defined on the upcoming 64-bit Windows; it
will define _WIN64 instead. Code intended to work on current and future
versions of Windows should check for either of these.

--
Ross Smith <ross.s_at_[hidden]> The Internet Group, Auckland, New Zealand
========================================================================
    "Be careful about using the following code -- I've only proven
    that it works, I haven't tested it."           -- Donald Knuth