PRB: "missing ':' in ->" Caused by Control Character

 Last reviewed: July 17, 1997
Article ID: Q67736
1.00 1.10 | 1.00 1.10 
MS-DOS    | OS/2
kbtool kbprb

The information in this article applies to:

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

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]
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 reference words: 1.00 1.10 PWBIss
KBCategory: kbtool kbprb
KBSubcategory: PWBIss
Keywords : kb16bitonly

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Last reviewed: July 17, 1997
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