WAD ECHO ON Does Not Work in TCC-RT

[Jay Sage]

This is probably intentional, but command lines are not echoed in batch scripts even after an ECHO ON command is issued. The variable %_ECHO does reflect the echoing state, but it has no effect.

Assuming that this is intentional, I would suggest including this information in the README.TXT file that comes with TCC-RT.

 

[vefatica]

Works for me.

v:\> type eval50.btm
echo on
option //EvalMax=50

v:\> d:\tcc-rt\tcc.exe eval50.btm

option //EvalMax=50


v:\>

 

[Joe Caverly]

Works for me.

It does not work for me in TCC-RT,
when using TCC-RT from PowerShell 5.1

Joe

 

[Joe Caverly]

Yep, it works when running TCC-RT from TCC,
which is what @vefatica is doing.

Another reason NOT to test TCC-RT .btms from TCC.

Joe

 

[Jay Sage]

Interesting. Is Rex turning off the processing of the ECHO state unless one is running TCC-RT under TCC, showing that the full product has been purchased.

Like Joe, I am making sure to run TCC-RT in an environment available to someone who does not own the TCC product. I want to be sure that my script works without depending on any TCC functionality that is not supported in TCC-RT. (I've tested my web page generation script, and it works, though I'm not quite sure how I would teach my colleague to use it.)

Meanwhile, for my own ease of working, I have a rather full-featured quasi-interactive version of TCC-RT running under CMD. It maintains a command history file and adds "call" prefixes to each command, even in a command line with multiple commands. Perhaps with a lot of work, I could even finesse command history recall using a keystroke. So far, I can display the command history and copy commands via the clipboard.

 

[vefatica]

Works from the run dialog (Win+R). Works from PWSH (7.6.3). This is from PWSH.

V:\> $PSVersionTable.PSVersion

Major  Minor  Patch  PreReleaseLabel BuildLabel
-----  -----  -----  --------------- ----------
7      6      3


V:\> get-content V:\eval50.btm
echo on
option //EvalMax=50
pause

V:\> d:\tcc-rt\tcc.exe v:\eval50.btm

option //EvalMax=50
pause
Press any key when ready...

 

[Jay Sage]

Vince, I think you put your last post into the wrong thread. You sure had me confused for a while as I tried to figure out what that had to do with the ECHO state.

 

[vefatica]

Vince, I think you put your last post into the wrong thread. You sure had me confused for a while as I tried to figure out what that had to do with the ECHO state.

Do you mean post #6? Where do you think it belongs? Isn't this thread about batch lines being echoed (or not) after ECHO ON in TCC-RT?

 

[Jay Sage]

Sorry, it looked as though it was about the option settings.

So what do you think is controlling whether TCC-RT respects ECHO ON and ECHO OFF? Did you try it under CMD?

 

[vefatica]

Sorry, it looked as though it was about the option settings.

So what do you think is controlling whether TCC-RT respects ECHO ON and ECHO OFF? Did you try it under CMD?

I have no clue. It works everywhere I've tried it. The classic question: Do you have an alias for ECHO? Here's CMD.

v:\> type v:\eval50.btm
echo on
echo BatchEcho is %@option[BatchEcho]
echo _ECHO = %_echo
option //EvalMax=50
pause

v:\> d:\tcc-rt\tcc.exe v:\eval50.btm

echo BatchEcho is No
BatchEcho is No
echo _ECHO = 1
_ECHO = 1
option //EvalMax=50
pause
Press any key when ready...

 

[Jay Sage]

Do you have an alias for ECHO? Here's CMD.

No. I have ensured that there are no aliases, no functions, no INI file, no TCSTART or TCEXIT.

I just played around some more and discovered something significant. When I invoke TCC-RT without options, echoing works as expected. However, when I launch it with the options "/I /L /Q", echoing does not happen no matter what the setting is.

After a little more testing: it is the /Q option! Apparently is does more than turn off the copyright. It puts TCC-RT in a quiet mode where it does not echo commands.

Uggh.

 

[vefatica]

After a little more testing: it is the /Q option! Apparently is does more than turn off the copyright. It puts TCC-RT in a quiet mode where it does not echo commands.

Nice find! It's true of TCC also. That seems like a bug to me. Here's TCC.

v:\> *ver

TCC  36.51.77 x64   Windows 11 [Version 10.0.26200.8875]

v:\> type eval50.btm
echo on
echo BatchEcho is %@option[BatchEcho]
echo _ECHO = %_echo
option //EvalMax=50
pause

v:\> %comspec /c /q v:\eval50.btm
BatchEcho is No
_ECHO = 1
Press any key when ready...

 

[Jay Sage]

The help for the /Q option of TCC says:

Don't display version / copyright message (registered copies only).​

It doesn't say anything about turning of batch echoing. I just tried launching the full TCC with the /Q option, and it does turn off batch echoing.

 

[Jay Sage]

I see that we were doing the same next step at the same time.

I agree: it is a bug in either the code or the documentation.

 

[vefatica]

Not only that but it's permanent. If, in TCMD, I do Tabs\Run ... d:\tc36\tcc.exe /q, I get a new tab. In the new TCC, ECHO ON is not honored in BTMs. That deserves a new (bug) thread; this thread is a tad long.

 

[rconn]

little more testing: it is the /Q option! Apparently is does more than turn off the copyright. It puts TCC-RT in a quiet mode where it does not echo commands.

WAD - CMD.EXE compatibility.

 

[Jay Sage]

WAD - CMD.EXE compatibility.

That's OK, but the fact that the documentation is erroneous is not. The help says only that it turns off the copyright notice on startup.

I was working on a script that sends its output to standard-out for redirection, so I had to suppress the copyright notice. The Q option looked like just what was needed. Then I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why echo on was not working. Had the help been accurate, I could have spent that time trying to find another solution.

 

[rconn]

I generally do not try to document CMD behavior in the TCC help, unless there's a significant difference between how CMD and TCC handle something.

In this case, they do the same thing, and have been doing so for the last 25+ years.