Can't build when "#" in any subdirectory names

[Enlightenment-zz]

The Watcom IDE can't build when the user project is located in any directory tree that has a "#" in any subdirectory name.
When Watcom IDE fails, it shows the following error: "Error(E32): Opening file (C:): No such file or directory".

I can build in these directories:

• C:\PROJECT
• C:\DEV

I can't build in these directories. (I had to add extra space in github otherwise the "#" doesn't appear")

• C:\ #PROJECT
• C:\ #DEV
• C:\TEST\ #SRC
• C:\TEST\ SRC#
• C:\TEST\ SRC#123

Either fix this problem, or the tools should make it obvious to the user that "#" in directory names isn't supported.

It took me months to discover the cause of this problem. Last year, I rename my top level project directory, but didn't use Watcom until months later. Initially I thought my antivirus or something else accidentally damaged something in my C:\WATCOM directory or environment variables. Eventually, for the heck of it, I decided to rename my project directory back to it's old name, then bam Watcom magically started working again. I was very ticked off when I realized the cause of this bug. This eventually led me to installing the latest Watcom build, which is why I'm reporting issues this week.

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My Watcom C/C++:

• Installed IDE = 2.0 beta Feb 29 2024 02:16:26 (64-bit)
• Installed Dir = C:\WATCOM

My Host O/S:

• Win10 Home 22H2 64bit

My Target O/S:

• Windows Command Line Program

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[jmalak]

IDE use internally wmake utility.
It is limitation of wmake utility which use '#' character as start of comment.
You can have a problem with other characters.
Anyway it is general problem because there is also host OS limitation for file name/path characters.

I am sorry, but '#' character should be valid filename character for wmake.
see cretype.c program source which generate wmake character classification table for each host system.
Please give here reproducible example of IDE project, because it can be mistake for filename processing or specific case.