Clarence,
I thought that the main difference between .exe and .com files was that the
.com files had to have a limited length.
Roger Turk
Tucson, Arizona USA
Clarence Verge wrote:
>>Hello All;
Or wrote something about DOS not caring about file extensions.
I wrote some (mostly true) crap about the difference between .com
and .exe.
It turns out that in 20 years of using this DOS based stuff I had
never tried to just swap the extensions and see what happens.
Actually, it STILL seems like a dumb thing to do, and without some
prodding from Glenn I would still be quite happy in my ignorance.
Regardless of the different internal formats, in all versions of
DOSs tested from PC3.3 to MS6.22 and Glenn's newkid XXX, programs
load and run perfectly even if you swap the exe and com extensions.
Apparantly, DOS looks inside the files, and if it starts with 4Dh 5Ah
it treats it as an exe and otherwise as a com.
Don't start your com programs with dec BP, pop DX. (Why would you.):(
I can't believe I didn't stumble onto some text somewhere that pointed
this out.
Sorry, Or.
- Clarence Verge<<
