Billrich, your idea of "help" is simply copy-pasting from a command window the /? from a command that over half the time has nothing to do with the question at hand, and then the moment anybody points that out you call them things like "BC_hat" and "Casper" while meanwhile not actually adding either anything relevant to the situation, anything pertinent to WHY you think the /? is actually something useful (people are looking for some sort of human input, not autonomic replies they can get elsewhere) or even pointing out, in those cases where the command is even slightly related to the issue, WHAT switch is relevant. For example, somebody would ask how to sort files in a dir, or something. And you'd simply post the entire listing of the dir /? command, which, while containing the answer doesn't actually answer the question. May as well answer questions "what does the word <blank> mean" with a listing a dictionary.
And in this instance, simply because Ghostdog refuses to answer your irrelevant questions to make broad assumptions about his occupation and age. He knows more about computers then you ever will, and helps more then you could ever hope. The only thing he learned today is that your posts are best ignored.
Also, while the latest reply to the thread was in fact recent, the quote you replied to WAS three months old, and his conjecture about why you decided to reply to the three month old post rather then the more immediate questions posed (which I might add are even more removed from being a "pure DOS" solution then the ones ghostdog posted).
And Lastly, The "Batch" board is for Batch files. Batch Files run on windows.
A batch file is a series of commands. we all know this.
NT has command extensions. These don't work in pure DOS batch.
NT also, like other versions of windows, has commands such as CScript and WScript.
Too not leverage these tools as one leverages the "find" or other DOS commands is to neglect to realize the purpose of batch is to make things easier, not to serve as a fully integrated environment. This is why we HAVE the DOS programs such as find, and more, that are used with many versions of MS-DOS. the Windows Scripting Host is available on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. To neglect solutions that use the scripting host on the basis that they are not "pure batch" is ludicrous, because they work. Batch is, as ghostdog said, limited when it comes to dates. It sucks. The date processing is limited to context sensitive string processing that requires a knowledge of the specific date separators available on the machine. VBScript actually has a Date data type and functions that deal with the dates in a way that is actually localizable to more then one regional date format.
