[texhax] Information about document in the document

[John Culleton]

On Thursday 09 October 2008 10:48:20 am Dan Hatton wrote:
> Tom Schneider wrote:
> > See the 'pwd' there?  That's 'print working directory', a command
> > under all unix operating systems such as Linux.  It probably
> > doesn't exist in Bill's brain.  However perhaps you can put unix
> > on your machine (ubuntu!) or make a unix platform (Cygwin) in
> > which you can run the program.
>
> 'cd' without arguments is to MSDOS (and therefore presumably to
> modern Windows versions as well) as 'pwd' is to Linux.  ('cd'
> without arguments on Linux will, however, change the working
> directory to the user's home directory, so watch out).  Although I
> don't know how you'd get the rest of it, particularly the output
> redirection '>', to work.

As I recall input and output redirection works on MSDOS as well.  For 
example the command
more beer
on *nix is
more <beer 
on MSDOS. 
Or so I recall. Can find an MSDOS manual at the moment. Must have 
tossed them. Oh well.

cd on all systems I have used means ¨change directory¨.  On Windows 
and often on *nix systems the current directory is part of the 
prompt. ¨pwd¨ means print working directory on *nix systems.  

The MSDOS command set is taken from Unix, but in a much simplified 
form. Since Microsoft sold Xenix (a Unix variant) at one time 
presumably Bill knows all the Unix commands.  As I recall Microsoft 
then sold the Xenix product to Santa Cruz Operations (aka SCO). But 
don´t hold me to that. It all happened a long, long, time ago. 

A way to use Linux without going through the bother of an installation 
is to use a Knoppix cdr (Debian derivative) or a Slax cdr (Slackware 
derivative.) These boot themselves. They make useful emergency rescue 
disks also.  If your files are readable at all you can copy them from 
a corrupted MSWin partition to a flash drive or whatever.  Linux 
doesn´t use the registry to find files. 

-- 
John Culleton
Resources for every author and publisher:
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/packagers.pdf
http://www.creativemindspress.com/newbiefaq.htm
http://www.gropenassoc.com/TopLevelPages/reference%20desk.htm