[Coco] Drive letter issue in paths with toolshed os9 copy command on Windows

[Tormod Volden]

On Wed, Sep 28, 2016 at 3:39 PM, Allen Huffman wrote:
>> On Sep 28, 2016, at 8:37 AM, tim lindner <tlindner at macmess.org> wrote:
>> Off the top of my head we can:
>>
>> 1. Change the sub-disk delimiter for all platforms.

This is DECB syntax, isn't? Would be a shame to go away from it.

>>
>> 2. Change the sub-disk delimiter for Windows only. Leave it a colon on *nix.

Same as above. Plus that different syntax on different platforms is a pain.

>>
>> 3. Allow a new character to denote a drive letter.

Changing it will likely confuse many users.

>>
>> 4. Ignore the colon when there is a colon-backslash two character
>> sequence. This works because, I think, a number is mandatory after a
>> sub-disk specification.

Unfortunately, e.g. C:MYFILE is a valid path name on MSDOS, without
any backslash.

One could check if the colon is followed by a number (one or more
digits). However, C:123FILE is maybe valid also? One would need to
check that everything following the colon (until comma or end) is
composed out of digits or a plus (the +offset syntax for HDBDOS
offset). Can a filename be just a number (without extension) on MSDOS?
Maybe we can live with that corner case being broken.

>
> #4 sounds like the most user-friendly solution. Does it currently make use of other "DOS ONLY", "UNIX ONLY" type things?
>

Not that I know of. It would be desirable to have the same syntax
rules on all platforms, as long as it is possible. For the record,
"C:123" and "C:\123" are valid file names on UNIX :) Even including
the quotes...

Tormod