Okay, so I got the following problem:

I'm trying to open a text file in my project folder. So far so good, I got the following function:

Code:
function file_load(STRING* fileName)
{
      // firstly, create a file handle

	var myFileHandle;

	// now, do the annoying string hickup to open the file in the correct folder:
	
	STRING* fileToGet = " ";


	str_cpy(fileToGet,"%EXE_DIR%\\");

	str_cat(fileToGet,fileName);

	//	return(fileToGet);
	// open the file
	
	myFileHandle = file_open_read(fileToGet);
	error(fileToGet);
	error(str_for_num(NULL,myFileHandle));
	
}



Now, what I'd expect to happen now is that the error boxes popping up show me the path I wanna access, which should be my project folder (I got no subfolders) and the handle I get when accessing the file. The file does physically exist in the folder.
What I get in the box however is not this:

%EXE_DIR%\\myFile.txt

but this:

%EXE_DIR%\myFile.txt

As you can see, one "\" is missing; accordingly, I get a zero as file handle value as the folder the script tries to open doesnt exist.

I tried and put an
Code:
error("\\")


with a varying number of "\"s, and I always got only one "\" back - if I put an uneven number of them in the string, I get a syntax error at compiling.
Now, am I missing something about strings here? Is there a logical reason why the "\"s seem to vanish?