you're right, it isn't a bug, it only appears when my MTS theme engine is enabled. i have an alias called echo, which will parse your text.. here it is:
alias echo {
var %mts $read -w"ECHO *" %mtheme | var %mts $gettok(%mts,2-,32)
if ($left($asctime($timestampfmt),3) !isin $2-) {
if ($left(%mts,7) != !script) {
var %mts = $replace(%mts,<c1>,%::c1,<c2>,%::c2,<c3>,%::c3,<c4>,%::c4,<text>,$2-)
if (%::pre !isin %mts) { var %mts = $replace(%mts,<pre>,%pre) }
else { var %mts = $replace(%mts,<pre>,) }
echo $1 $iif(%mts.timestamp == ON,$asctime($timestampfmt),) %mts
}
else { set -un %:echo echo $2 | set -un %::text $2- | $gettok(%mts,2-,32) }
}
else { echo $1- }
}

how can i get this to work with the alias?