An obvious advantage of vDos-lfn over earlier XyWrite-friendly versions of vDos is its support for long file names (LFNs) in DOS. Another advantage, equally important, is that vDos-lfn is based on the latest release of vDos, which incorporates the 4DOS command processor. 4DOS has an expanded command set and an enhanced batch language (using file type .BTM) which includes support for LFN to short file name (SFN) conversion (via built-in variable @SFN). What this means for XyWrite is there's no longer a need to shell to Windows to do LFN-to-SFN conversions; you can do them in DOS, which is faster and more economical. Attached is a BTM file that demonstrates various Xy-related uses of 4DOS's SFN conversion function. Read SFN.BTM in XyWrite. The usage is: At the 4DOS command prompt: SFN.BTM ["]long_file_name["] Results (if LFN is valid): - The SFN is echoed to the screen - A Xy3 XPL program to CAll the SFN is written to disk as SFN3.PM - A Xy4 XPL program to CAll the SFN is written to disk as SFN4.PM Needless to say, if you (1) feed a valid LFN to SFN.BTM and then (2) RUN the SFNx.PM appropriate to your version of XyWrite, you've effectively CAlled the LFN. Combining the two steps is left as an exercise. -- Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxxAttachment: SFN.BTM
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