Setup Wizard Allows Use of Commas in Filenames in SETUP.LST

Last reviewed: October 25, 1996
Article ID: Q157898

The information in this article applies to:

Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic, 16-bit and 32-bit, for Windows version 4.0

SUMMARY

The Setup Wizard for Visual Basic 4.0 allows commas within filenames that are distributed with Visual Basic program files.

MORE INFORMATION

With the release of Windows NT 3.1, special characters in filenames, as well as long filenames, were allowed. This broke the restrictive 8.3 character file name rule that limited MS-DOS filenames, and allowed for more descriptive and useful filenames. In particular, the comma could now be used in a filename such as an alphanumeric character.

Realizing this, the Setup Wizard for Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 now allows the use of commas within filenames. If you add a file manually whose filename contains a comma to the list of targeted distribution files, the Setup Wizard will put quotes around the added file in order to signify that a comma was used within the filename. You should be aware of this if you intend to edit the SETUP.LST file manually after the Setup Wizard initially generates it.

Example

In the following sample Files section of SETUP.LST, File1 is an example of a normal filename, while File2 is an example of a filename with a comma used. Note that the comma is used as the delimiter for each entry. To solve this potential conflict, the Setup Wizard placed double-quotes (" ") around the filenames in question:

   >> [Files]
   >>

   File1=1,,Calc.EX_,Calc.EXE,$(AppPath),$(EXESelfRegister),,6/5/1995,14336
   ,1.0.0.0

   >> File2=1,,"my,test.tx_","my,test.txt",$(AppPath),,,6/5/1995,20

NOTE: This functionality is only available with the [Files] Section of SETUP.LST. Files that make use of commas in their filenames cannot be placed within the [BootStrap] Section of SETUP.LST. The [BootStrap] Section should only contain Visual Basic 4.0 runtime-required files and none of these files have commas in their filenames. The only way this situation can occur is if SETUP.LST is edited manually after its initial creation. This should be a rare occurrence and it is not suggested.

Additional reference words: comma setup.lst setup wizard 4.0 kbdsd
KBCategory: kbsetup kbusage
KBSubcategory: tlssetwiz

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Last reviewed: October 25, 1996
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