From: jj4public@gmail.com   
      
   On Wed, 30 Sep 2020 20:35:08 -0000 (UTC), Kenny McCormack wrote:   
   >   
   > Strange that you have to go out to the Internet to find documentation of   
   > something so obvious.  Why isn't it in the basic help system?   
      
   IMO, it's because CMD is the successor for MS-DOS v5.0 COMMAND.COM, and   
   COMMAND.COM initially doesn't have any help system. So everything has to be   
   explained from a printed document. Not even for `COMMAND /?`.   
      
   Help system were only added since MS-DOS v5.0, and it was a minimal help   
   system. Explaining mainly for the command syntax and any of its paramaters.   
   Further details were added into the help system on each newer COMMAND/CMD   
   versions, but they still don't cover all aspects of the command interpreter   
   program.   
      
   I could only guess that the developers are lazy. Because the fact that the   
   help in `CMD /?` doesn't thoroughly explain about the command line itself.   
   e.g. keyboard shortcut keys for command history, and command/file   
   completion. Including command grouping, redirection, command separator, and   
   conditional commands.   
      
   Those information were only exist in Windows XP offline help documentation   
   (in `ntcmds.chm` file). Later Windows versions no longer have such offline   
   documentation. Instead, it was moved to the internet and was made difficult   
   to find. Current Microsoft product's internet based documentation system is   
   a community based documentation. But the fact that all of its products are   
   proprietary, makes it no sense, considering that no one knows better than   
   Microsoft themselves. It's ridiculous.   
      
   I've researched all CMD versions starting from Windows NT 3.51 to Windows 10   
   build 1909. There were no major additions in the help system since Windows   
   Vista. Only minor additions were found in Windows 7, and Windows 10 build   
   1903. I haven't checked Windows 10 build 2004, but I doubt it has any   
   addition at all.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)