Hi Jerry,
A lot more than just minor things have changed since M$ went past the Win95
barrier. As someone actively involved in dragging a 1988 database
application into the 21st century, I can assure you that both the memory
model in WinX (95/98/NT/ME) and device access (COMx, LPTR etc) are very
different for DOS apps running in Command Prompt windows than it was under
DOS 6.
The thing that keeps kicking my butt is printing -- since NT networks
handle printing so much differently than DOS and Novell-type networks used
to, just getting our old app to print is a major pain in the behind. I
could explain some of this at great length but it would probably turn into
a rant -- right now I'm at work trying to make it work while you guys are
all enjoying the 10m contest. grrrrr... I'm also in charge of a project
to rewrite this app in Visual FoxPro with a SQL Server back end and
ColdFusion to make the data available via the web, which is a much more
satisfying proposition.
Have fun and rack up the Q's! I might get on tomorrow if I get this
figured out.
73 de Mike N2VR
At 12:06 AM 12/7/00 -0500, Jerry Flanders wrote:
>I was wondering why Win ME is reported to not support DOS programs, yet
>clearly has the MS-DOS prompt icon on the screen. I found the excerpts
>below at the Microsoft web page:
>
>http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q275/4/23.asp
>
>There is an additional info page linked from the above.
>
>There is a lot of info there on how to run routine DOS stuff. The problem
>apparently occurs only(?) with programs that need to run in "real" mode.
>Probably only programs meeding extended memory(?)
>
>Any of you guys who are forced to use ME because it "came with the
>computer" might want to be aware of the above page and perhaps bookmark it.
>
>Jerry W4UK
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