From: address@is.invalid   
      
   Herbert,   
      
   > I suppose you do some other task in the batch before you   
   > start the program with %*.   
      
   No, I don't.  Checking that %1 argument is, part from the "@echo off" the   
   first line in the script.   
      
   > Or tell us, what exactly you want to do.   
      
   Would it make a difference if I told you that the exact "first" line is "if   
   exist %1.ext goto DoExt" ?   
      
   >> Besides it throwing an error when an unknown first argument would be   
   >   
   > But exactly that should a program do: if you give an illegal input,   
   > it should give an error.   
      
   It should.  But there is quite a bit of difference between the crude error   
   the OS spew out and a much nicer "hey dumbass, check your input and try   
   again." message, don't you think ? :-)   
      
   > Here I get:   
   > program 1 was called with parameter foo   
   >   
   > The 1 is removed from the parameters because it is used as label   
   > for the call statement.   
      
   My apologies.  I didn't test it and now I did I see eyou are indeed right.   
      
   I think I took that "call" as a "goto" ... :-|   
      
   > The 1 is removed from the parameters because it is used as label   
   > for the call statement.   
      
   Yep.  I tried, for good measure, "call" as well as "goto" and that was   
   indeed the difference.   
      
   Regards,   
   Rudy Wieser   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)