Don't edit batch files during runtime

So it turns out that Windows batch files running under cmd (at least in Windows 7) are not preloaded into memory before runtime. Instead each line is loaded from disk right before it is executed. What this means is that if you edit the batch file during its runtime, you'll end up modifying the behaviour of the batch file being run.

Try this:

echo started
timeout 10
echo continued
echo ended
pause

This will make the batch file show "started", then wait for 10 seconds and finally show "continued" and "ended". To run it just paste the above code into Notepad and save it as "something.bat", then just double click the saved file.

Now open the batch file with Notepad again and run the file at the same time. As the batch file is waiting for 10 seconds, delete the "echo continued" line and save (before the 10 seconds are up). When the batch file continues, it will not show "continued" but will immediately jump to "ended".

Strange behaviour since this sort of thing does not happen with Python for example. I noticed this when I was trying to run multiple versions of the same batch file by just changing something in the file and running a new instance of it. Be careful of this.