can't pass command-line arguments

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

In article <Xns97A165539F6Eduncanbooth at 127.0.0.1>,
 Duncan Booth <duncan.booth at invalid.invalid> wrote:

>Windows variants such as NT/2000/XP are not based on MS-DOS in any way.

Then why are Windows system files still restricted to 8.3 names? Doesn't 
that restriction derive from a core MS-DOS-based kernel?