Re: III+ problem

[hickling@xxxxxxxx (Lee Hickling)]

Les,
   Why run the program in a DOS box? All my DOS programs -- and I use a
number of them -- that I start from Windows 3.1 run in a full screen. I
have never had the problem you describe, or any other.
   Alt-Tab switches back and forth between Windows and an app running that
way, and of course, Ctrl-Esc allows me to have a number of programs on tap.
   When I first started using Windows 3.1 and Dos 6.22, I tried running
the DOS apps both ways. It simply didn't make sense to me, for most
purposes, to have them run in a window.
   I have a couple of memory-hungry DOS programs, particularly Ventura,
that prefer to have RAM all to themselves, so I simply exit Windows and
start them from the C:\ prompt. I have never had to do that with XW4DOS.
   Why be compulsive about running programs in Windows, just because
Windows is there? I may be useful once in a while -- moving text with
Clipboard, perhaps -- but once again, I do that straight in the word
processing or DTP program involved, without getting Windows into the act?
   Are you on a network? If not, I wouldn't mess with FCBs. On the other
hand, a little experimenting with memory management worked for me. I had 16
RAM, which sounded more than enough for most purposes, but I had to keep
tweaking to get everything happy. I can't recall everything I did, except
that I wound up with everything loaded high that can be loaded high,
   Once again, the advice I was given is not to play with defining FCBs.
With DOS 6.22 it's not necessary if your system stands alone.

>I am running III+ in a dos box under windows 3.11 and dos 6.22.
>I also run other dos applications (procom+ and quatro 5, for example).
>I have a problem that seems related to using xy in a dos box.
>After some period of using xy, when opening or closing xywrite windows I
>get a series of error messages as follows:
>FCB unavailable
>Disk error on overflow file
>or sometimes
>FCB unavailable
>error writing to disk
>I mention dos 6.22 because I have been told by this version of dos it is
>no longer necessary to set file control blocks in config.sys
>I tried setting FCBS=24,8 (and other parameters) anyway but it did not help.
>Does anyone have a similar experience or suggestions for a solution
>(other than switching to your favourite operating system)?

>&  A. Leslie Robb,  Department of Economics,   McMaster University  &
>&  Hamilton, Ontario  L8S 4M4                     &
>&  1-905-525-9140 ext. 23815           Fax: 1-905-521-8232  &
Lee Hickling