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Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 06:46:11 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in toolbar] (by way of Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar])
Subject: SLL: Letter to Bill Gates, President, Microsoft Corporation
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MEMO
TO: Bill Gates, President
Microsoft Corporation
FROM: Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S.
Counselor at Law
DATE: October 28, 1997
SUBJECT: Forward Incompatibility
I am writing this letter to bring to your specific attention a
fault which we have isolated in Windows 95/OSR2, and to request
your immediate attention to restoring functionality which was
working just fine in DOS 6.22.
I do believe your strategic thrust to emphasize interactive modes
has resulted in certain identifiable oversights in the area of
batch processing. I refer you specifically to the DOS SET
command, and to the command-line options which were available
under DOS Version 6.22. The option in which we are most
interested, at the present time, is "/M".
We require the ability for a user program, e.g. QBASIC or other
language processor, to modify an environment variable, and this
modified variable MUST keep the value we assign to it, AFTER the
user program stops.
I refer you to the similar complaints which author Dan Gookin has
written in his excellent work entitled "Advanced Batch File
Programming," 3rd edition, published by Windcrest/McGraw-Hill.
See "Manipulating the environment," pages 292-296. Quoting now:
"For some reason, assigning variables with ENVIRON is only a
temporary thing. ... [W]hen I was able to assign a
variable, once I quit BASIC and returned to DOS, that
variable was gone. (The SET command did not display it.)"
Although there is no publisher on this planet who can claim total
perfection at all times, I do hope you will agree with me when I
say that McGraw-Hill has a rather stellar reputation when it
comes to printing reliable computer documentation. My own
experience last weekend empirically confirmed Gookin's statement
immediately above.
Although we had intended to standardize on Win95/OSR2 for all
machines currently in use by our development team, the fault in
the SET command now requires that we run a hybrid network, with
some machines still running Windows 3.11 under DOS 6.22. Your
decision to remove functionality from the SET command is the real
reason why this choice had to be made.
Can you please instruct your development team to patch OSR2, and
make it available for Internet download, with terse and correct
instructions for those of us who need, and will benefit from,
this feature?
Thank you very much for your consideration in this matter.
Although it may not seem important to you, it is very important
to us.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Mitchell
Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S.
Counselor at Law and federal witness
c/o 2509 N. Campbell Avenue, #1776
Tucson 85719/tdc
ARIZONA STATE (See USPS Publication #221.)
email: supremelaw@ibm.net (586/Eudora Pro 3.0.3(32):
preferred, to conserve all resources)
phone: (520) 320-1514 (private line:
please get permission to disclose)
fax machine: (520) 320-1256 (dedicated hard copy:
available 24-hours per day or night)
website: http://www.supremelaw.com
# # #
===========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell, Sui Juris : Counselor at Law, federal witness 01
B.A.: Political Science, UCLA; M.S.: Public Administration, U.C.Irvine 02
tel: (520) 320-1514: machine; fax: (520) 320-1256: 24-hour/day-night 03
email: [address in tool bar] : using Eudora Pro 3.0.3 on 586 CPU 04
website: http://supremelaw.com : visit the Supreme Law Library now 05
ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best 06
Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone 07
Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this 08
_____________________________________: Law is authority in written words 09
As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice. We shall 10
not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal. 11
======================================================================== 12
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