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Q67736: PRB: "missing ‘:’ in ->" Caused by Control Character

Article: Q67736
Product(s): Microsoft Programming Utilities
Version(s): MS-DOS:1.0,1.1; OS/2:1.0,1.1
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kb16bitonly
Last Modified: 31-OCT-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Programmer's Workbench for MS-DOS, versions 1.0, 1.1 
- Microsoft Programmer's Workbench for OS/2, versions 1.0, 1.1 
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SYMPTOMS
========

When invoking the Programmer's WorkBench (PWB), if there is a control character
at the end of the TOOLS.INI file, [usually a CTRL+Z (ASCII 26) end-of-file
marker] and you only have a [pwb] tagged section, an error message will appear
stating "missing ':' in ->". Note that the "->" is the graphic right-arrow
symbol.

CAUSE
=====

This is not a problem in the PWB. A control character is a legal macro name. The
message indicates that a macro definition or key assignment is expected after
the character. To keep this message from appearing, place the tag

  " [end] " (without the quotation marks)

before the control character at the end of your TOOLS.INI file. With this tag at
the end of the file, you always suppress the message, even if you edit TOOLS.INI
with an editor that inserts CTRL+Z's at the end of the file. This is because the
-> symbol must be within the [pwb] tagged section for this error message to
be displayed, and the [end] tag forces the -> into its own tagged section.

Simply deleting the control character will work until you edit the file with an
editor that replaces the CTRL+Z, then this message reappears. This may also
occur when using the COPY command to concatenate files.

Additional query words: 1.00 1.10 PWBIss

======================================================================
Keywords          : kb16bitonly 
Technology        : kbAudDeveloper kbPWBSearch kbZNotKeyword3 kbPWB100DOS kbPWB110DOS kbPWB100OS2 kbPWB110OS2
Version           : MS-DOS:1.0,1.1; OS/2:1.0,1.1

=============================================================================

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