Re: XY4 all-in-one diskette

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from "ca"  on Mon, 5 Feb 2001
19:02:26 -0800

> I ' m searching for a short menu & dialogue file,
> for fitting a complete xy4/dos system on a single diskette.
> I' ve tried MINI.mnu, but the choices are too limited.

Burn a CD. That's my solution, for travel. No need for "short" form
of anything. I include on the CD a program for Win32 systems that
adds the current CD-ROM drive (automatically determined) and several
subdirs on the CD to the host machine's PATH. I set a temporary
directory on C: (which I figure the host machine has to have -- fair
assumption) as my work space, and then ChDir to it. This way I can
take all sorts of stuff with me, not just XyWrite. Even with a
Write-Once CD, as long as it isn't "sealed" you can keep burning
updated copies of the same file onto it (i.e. as those files are
revised), and a new FAT table (actually ISO-9660 in the Joliet flavor
that Windows likes) gets written while all the old files of same name
are marked deleted (although not erased, of course -- they just don't
appear in the DIRectory). EVERYBODY has a CD-ROM these days; I've
seen workstations with CDs but no A: drive. Anyway, you can just run
Editor straight off the CD -- it works great. I always use a
drive-blind STARTUP.INT, so that it's completely portable from
installation to installation, which begins like this:

>++"\">;*;
{240}"\">>>;*;
>3>+"\">>;*;
>>;*;
;*; ==d (XyWdriveletter)
;*; ==d:\XyWpath\
;*; ==d:\XyWpath
;*; ==\XyWpath
BX :Q2 ;*;
BX cd Q2 ;*;
BX login RHQ2 ;*;
BX default dr=BTFONTS\Q2 ;*;
BX load pers.splQ2 ;*;
BX lp settings.dflQ2 ;*;
BX lp accents.prnQ2 ;*;
BX ldkbd ibm.kbdQ2 ;*;
BX load
stub.hlp+myxyweb.u2+stub.mnu+xy4.dlgQ2 ;*;
+"my.stk">;*;
JM 2.HIDE:01-03Q2 ;*;
JM stack.intQ2 ;*;
JM 2.stackauxQ2 ;*;
JM 2.GetXyOSQ2 ;*;
JM 2.RDMgrQ2 ;*;
JM 2.UnhideQ2 ;*;
BX d dr=BTFONTSQ2 ;*;
JM 2.loadevarQ2 >;*;
etc. etc.

Notice that I move VAriables that need a d:\path\filespec and
normally appear in SETTINGS.DFL into STARTUP.INT, e.g. what appears in
SETTINGS.DFL as
 ;DR=drive:\path\ for overflow files
 df dr=G:\XY4\BTFONTS
is moved to STARTUP:
 BX d dr=BTFONTSQ2 ;*;

Additionally, there are a few specs external to XyWrite that I like
to have available; I dedicate a single permanent Save/Get to each one,
e.g. I keep the OS_BootDrive in S/G 649, which I determine in
STARTUP.INT thus:

JM 2.loadevarQ2 >;*;

This just stuffs the %COMSPEC%, e.g. F:\WINNT\system32\cmd.exe, into
S/G 649, then  parses the "F" driveletter off the left end
of the %COMSPEC%. S/G 649="F".

In U2, there are numerous User Variables that request user
d:\path\file settings, e.g.:

;*; USER VARIABLE - Use eXPanded view to set Save/Get
;*; -------------------------------------------------
;*; Rexx Directory (REXX.EXE & XyShell *.REX|CMD|BAT|DAT location),
;*;  e.g. 
;*;
;*;

Since Object Rexx should be installed on the Win32_BootDrive, I write:
 +":\ObjREXX">;*;
This concatenates the BootDriveletter with ":\ObjREXX" to yield the
result in S/G 661, "F:\ObjREXX".

In like manner you can systematically keep all your LOAD files
completely portable.

The German software RSJ CD-Writer has a GREAT filesystem, that allows
you to treat your CD-ROM like any ordinary drive, COPY files to it,
REName, XCOPY, whatever. You can FTP into it -- anything! It becomes
a real, live drive. RSJ puts Adaptec to shame, and has a lively
Usenet newsgroup.

P.S. I took my CD to a Windows 2000 machine on Saturday, and Xy4DOS
seemed fine. I didn't notice any slowdown at all, no keyboard
peculiarity, nothing. Ran just like you'd imagine an NT SP7 would 
-- except that, instead of being a free Service Pack upgrade SP6a ==>
SP7, it cost $150.

----------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
----------