windows grrrrrr

Perhaps Win7? But NONE of the options i see depicted state or imply NO copy if same (date)..

bullshit.

batch files that compare sizes and timestamps on files, I guess it's possible, but it's extremely hard to get right.

FOO.TXT 1024 08-09-12 10:11a BAR.TXT 1024 09-08-12 04:30p write a dos 3.3 batch that can determine which is newer.

It takes about 60 lines including invoking atleast two dufferent external commands (*) and a few temporary files to get somthing that only works some of the time

(*)stuff that shipped with dos but wasn't built-in

"replace /u" was is the way to go

I do that, but the case I'm interested in would involve dragging two folders, the source and destination.

But maybe I could write a bunch of XCOPY batch files, one for each destination device/folder. Then I could drag/drop any source file onto one of those.

Try "right click" and then "Send To". Then choose the destination.

If it is on the desktop, the "Send To" menu selection should be there.

so where's the problem?

A command-line invoked program, or batch file, only gets one command-line string, at startup.

There are MS-DOS utilities that actually prompt the user for any non-entered segment, such as 'source' and 'destination'.

I think Xcopy does it too.

You can write a batch file that prompts for variables, then builds things like XCOPY commands. But I'd have to type the full paths. I want to drag-and-drop, like a regular explorer copy.

I can do it with two programs/icons: drop the source folder onto the icon called FROM, and then drop the destination folder on top of TO. FROM.EXE would just save its command-line argument to a temp file that TO.EXE could pick up. I guess I'll do that.

I tried invoking XCOPY with no arguments, and it complains that it has too few parameters. It doesn't prompt.

huh? It's not limited like that when I when I do it.

open a command-line window. (windows-r "CMD" enter)

type a command

press space

drag a folder into the window

press space

drag another folder into the window

etc

then press enter.

huh? yourself

That's still a little clumsy, and XCOPY needs a bunch of switches on the end, too. I could write a PowerBasic program that parses the drop-in things so as to not need the typed spaces or the switches, maybe even not the final .

tryping==errors, that's why I like FolderMatch... it tells me what matches, what doesn't, AND the DETAILS, before asking me what I want to do. ...Jim Thompson

I'm currently using something like

xcopy c:\*.* d:\*.* /e /c /f /h /r /k /y

Some of the sources are network drives, and some people might have files open or whatever, so I want to keep going if there's an error on one file or something.

Xcopy needs a /dammit switch... copy the damned files.

Have you ever tried XXCOPY? Some of the people at Microdyne liked it.

It's still command line driven. And it has 230 switches!

But it will do things that xcopy wouldn't. They used it in a batch file to copy & configure the solid state disk drives for one produnct.

Be *very* wary of Windows file copy utilities, including XCOPY. They

me.

two

Really. Wow. I can hardly believe that you cannot build a simple powerbasic program for that with either GUI or CLI. Diagusting after all your ranting about how useful it is.

?-)

Larkin is a Biden-style person, it's all about keeping your name in view... no matter the idiotic statements. ...Jim Thompson