Thread: dos prompt disappearing

Originally Posted by major_small

follow the standards and we can help you better... you need the <cstring> header for strcmpi, or in the older standards, <string.h>...

Well using the standard and strcmpi don't go together as the function is non standard.

Again I'll refer you to my posting using std::string instead of a character array. It won't do insenstive comparison but with a little work it can.

Edit: Just noticed one small mistake on the code in the std::string post but I can't edit that post.

Code:

system(command);

Should be

Code:

 system(command.c_str());

My apologies for that mistake

However if you are dead set on using a null terminated array of characters here is some advise:

Using a loop to keep things alive while the person is executing commands. If you wish to use functions to get the input use return values to determine if you should continue or not.

As to why your program fails:

Code:

#include <iostream.h>

New standard specifies that the header should be <iostream>

Code:

char command[99999];

Not invalid just not good practice to use global variables

Code:

void exec();
void call();

These are ok and act as a prototype for the functions

Code:

int main()
{

Still ok

Code:

    void exec();

And here we have a problem. You think this is a call but guess what? It isn't. Its acting as a prototype for exec. to make it a call just use exec();

Code:

}

void exec()
{
    cout << "Command>";
    cin.getline(command, 99999, '\n');

This is ok

Code:

    if(command = "quit")

Here you are trying to assign the const array of characters "quit" to the array command which isn't valid

Code:

    {
        return;
    }
    
    else
    {

This is ok

Code:

        void call();

Same as above, its a prototype not a call

Code:

    }
    
}

void call()
{
    system(command);

This is ok

Code:

    void exec();

Again a prototype not a call

Code:

}

This is ok

Originally Posted by Thantos

Well using the standard and strcmpi don't go together as the function is non standard.

good point... I was just saying that it was a depreciated header... that's all...