OK, some progress and some frustration in XyVDOS4Mac.
What I have mapped to A: -- my XY folder -- seems to be the equivalent of your XY4 -- the working directory. But mine has both the program files and a zillion text files.
If I change B: to A: in autoexec.txt, I think that's too soon -- it doesn't run your editor.exe and can't find startup, settings, etc. Sometimes it crashes completely. So I have returned to B and used the Option key to map my XY to A. That lets me find my text files with A:filename. I'm fine with that.
But the scrambled function keys are a major problem. I think the solution is to find an old standard XY4 keyboard file and put those assignments into your XY4.KBD rather than what you are now using.
From the dawn of recorded XY time, F7 and F8 have been for cutting and pasting within XY4, essential to me. Your xy4.kbd does something else with them and with this keyboard file, I just don't know how to cut and paste within XY. (I see the commands in my old .kbd file -- MV for instance -- but I'm not ready to type them in every time.) F1 is start/end selected text, F3 is clear selection. F4 deletes a line. Yours do something else. Yes, I see that holding down shift selects text to work with your (still unparalleled) clipboard subroutines, but within XY4 is unknown.
I tried to copy-and-paste the function key assignments, 60-70, from my old KBD file into XY4.KBD, Table=, and they looked fine -- nn=XX, couldn't be simpler. But on reloading they just didn't work, nor did the function keys do anything else.
I'm also having trouble finding the virtual files in Vdos. Right-click and Show Package Contents seem to be for .pkg files, not .app. If I right-click, the app just opens. (To get my function keys into XY4.KBD, I went into my DosBox-X installation, copied to clipboard, and pasted and proofread.)
Window = 60 made the type size better, thanks. I still don't know how to tell Settings.dfl I want white text.
Anyway, trying to do things with "fanatical precision," but the Windows vs. Mac battles continue.
I'll try the DosBox version soon; I suspect that may be the solution.
Jon Pareles
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Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2023 13:59:35 -0500