I'm sure there is a good explanation for what I'm seeing but I haven't
been able to come up with it.  Allow me to present the scenario:

I am using Visual C++ 6.0.  A unit test I have written tests the
scenario in which the config file does not exist.  I do this by
removing the config file, then asking an object to initialize which
uses the following code to load the config file.

pDomDocument.CreateInstance(__uuidof(DOMDocument));
VARIANT_BOOL vResult = pDomDocument->load(_bstr_t("config.xml"));

Obviously it should fail to find the config file.  When stepping
though the code in the debugger, however, it appears to be finding it!
 I assure all that I have double and triple checked that, at the point
load was called, the current path was what I expected it to be and
that the file was indeed deleted.

If I use ".\\config.xml" then everything seems to work as I would
expect in the case where I am debugging.  The tests where the load
method should fail, fail and the tests where the load method should
work, work.

When I actually deploy the application which uses the code
".\\config.xml" fails to load but "config.xml" succeeds!

<rant>The documentation claims that if the parameter to load is a bstr
that it is interpreted as a URL to the xml file to load.  Of course
the same document goes on to show strings such as
"C:\\temp\\books.xml" (clearly not a valid URL) being passed to the
method.  I have tried using real URLs for files on the file system but
had absolutely no luck getting things to load.  I presume this to mean
that the method doesn't support the protocol "file".</rant>

I would be grateful if anyone out there could disprove my sanity by
pointing out what I might be doing wrong.


	Thanks,
	Will