Re: xy3 installation problems

[megarat megarat@xxxxxxxx]

Hi Robert, et al.,

Thanks for the Xy2+ archive, but I'm afraid it didn't work as well. It hung,
just like its successors. I've since discovered some more information about
the QP that might explain why so many applications hang, instead of working
even slightly. Here's a response from the quickpad mailing list on
groups.yahoo.com from when I asked about the missing MODE command, in case
anyone's interested:

---

Hi Cam; I don't know anything about xywrite but I can
tell you a little about the quickpad: The now ancient
DOS PCs all operated in video mode 6, which was an
ascii text based mode where the video controller had a
character generator rom with a variety of built in
fonts. Depending on what controller your PC came
equipped with, it may have been capable of many
alternate display modes, widths and heights. The
Quickpad operates in CGA mode only, screen mode 3.
All characters you see on the screen are generated by
software built into the BIOS. It is operating exactly
the same as a standard DOS PC if you were to put it in
mode 3. It has no video controller and no character
generator rom. Most PC software used mode 6. The
Quickpad does not support this mode so most of the old
DOS software will not work and may even hang up
because it may be trying to communicate with a
non-existant video controller. Further, the LCD
itself has limited resolution (480 X 128 dots). Only
so much you can do with that!

Having said all that, the Quickpad does have a
compatible BIOS with all the interrupt calls that can
be supported with the limited hardware of the CPU
chip. There is no MODE command because you can't
change anything!!

---

so it's a bummer. but thank you all for your help.

cam



--- Robert Holmgren  wrote:
> ** Reply to message from megarat  on Mon, 1 Dec 2003
> 07:52:31 -0800 (PST)
>
>
> > there is a program that gives the QP a virtual 80x25 screen -- it's a TSR
> and
> > it let's you scroll off the edges of the screen with control-key combos --
> but
> > it hasn't helped either.
>
> Too bad.
>
> > even if it did help, i suspect it would drive me
> > batty, having to constantly shift the screen around to see the other 50% of
> my
> > text.
>
> If it worked, you could load the TSR before loading EDITOR, and then set
> XyWrite defaults SL=16 and SW=60, BW=0 for B&W, GA=CG for (monochrome) CGA
> Graphics Adapter support (or maybe GA=MD, I'm not sure), and then you
> *wouldn't* be driven batty -- everything would fit within the viewable area.
>
> Alas.
>
> But you know, in XyQuest AppNote 125, it says that Xy3+ v3.1 works with the
> Tandy 1000. Now the Tandy 1000 was an early 80s machine that ran in 640x200
> mono CGA too. I'm just wondering whether there isn't something else that's
> needed here (or that needs to be removed) to make this work. The machine
> must
> have AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, right? What do they say? Possibly you
> need
> a very early version of Xy v3.1? Damn, I used to have them all; now I just
> have v3.55 and up. But I do have Xy2+ (somewhere). Would you like to try
> that? It just might work...
>
> -----------------------------
> Robert Holmgren
> holmgren@xxxxxxxx
> -----------------------------
>


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