L.PE wrote on 2024-04-02, 09:26:

Indeed, on my old machine I could call loc86.exe with arguments on several lines with ampersand "&" […]
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Indeed, on my old machine I could call loc86.exe with arguments on several lines with ampersand "&"

=>For example loc86.exe ARG1 ARG2 &
ARG3 &
ARG4

I had to do this because the line exceeds 128 characters and it is only possible to call loc86.exe only by arguments (no configuration file), and its not possible to reduce arguments ....

maybe you used & in a makefile, but its not possible to exceed 128 characters in a command line, thats a msdos limit in the psp. maybe you were thinking \ instead on the command line.

BloodyCactus wrote on 2024-04-02, 13:08:

maybe you used & in a makefile, but its not possible to exceed 128 characters in a command line, thats a msdos limit in the psp. maybe you were thinking \ instead on the command line.

Hello and thanks for your reply.

I wasnt a makefile but a CMD file, it's possible to "bypass" the 128 limit if the program support it, which is the case of LOC86.EXE and but DOSBOX seems not able to treat ampersand (&) correctly in the commandline

Here, the details from the documentation of LOC86 which explain this, see attached file loc86.png

MS-DOS doesn't support executing .CMD files. Were you running this from a Windows command prompt and not MS-DOS?

what is posted about continuation lines from the IC86 manual, is not talking about running it from DOS because DOS does not does do "anything entered between the ampersand and carriage return is treated as a comment"

This functionality was never in "normal dos" as you say, and the manual says something different from what you show.

What you show is & (or &&) as a control character to execute one command after another, which still doesn't exist under "normal dos" but in Command Prompt from within windows.
The manual writes about line continuation, not different commands executed one after the other. Your example as per the manual would look like

1echo A &
2B

...which makes the manual very weird as this doesn't exist either in any dos.

Do/can we know which version of DOS this manual refers to? Could it be remnants from bash documentation, an MS-DOS version prior to 3.3, or even an IBM DOS version?

Hello All,

First thanks for you quick replies, was really appreciated.

Manual seems say that it support from dos 5

I have found the way to make continuous lines working on DOSBOX.

In our recent Windows, when we create files it put endline with CRLF

so we have something like:
PROG FOO & CRLF
bar & CRLF
FISH

I have force the file with end line like this and it worked as expected:

like FOO & CR
bar & CR
FISH

With this, there is no more problems of command limit chars (128)

Hope it help somebody in futur 😀

Regards