Re: XyWrite DOSBox MAC

[Joseph Fisher kzfisher@xxxxxxxx]

On Aug 25, 2004, at 11:39 AM, Harry Binswanger wrote:
> > This business of where Macs and their applications put things is a
> > puzzlement. I had decided to map the computer's directories but then
> > I thought that maybe I should forget the whole thing and build down
> > from my home directory. Let Mac do what it wants above that and I
> > will do what I want in the directories I create. Still working on it.
> Yes, I am having a hard time with the Mac directory structure. I am
> making progress.
The Mac directory structure indeed is different than DOS or Windows. I
have tinkered with Linux and since OS X is Unix based the Linux
background has been useful for helping me understanding it a little.
You can always open Mac OS X's terminal pgm in programs - utility
folder and use Unix directory commands to figure out things. I haven't
done this extensively because I haven't needed to but it's nice to know
it's available.
> > But, a question for those emulating DOS in Mac: what does the XyWrite
> > tree command report?
> Uhhhh. It bombs DOSBox (as does the FIND command) and locks up the
> whole Mac so badly that I have to hit the power button to reboot) (a
> highly unusual situation for the Mac).
> Conclusion: DOSBox is not up to even a 1.0 version. This is a beta
> version IMHO.
Perhaps since I am not a veteran Xy user I am not using the advanced
commands others are needing/using. I simply typed "tree" in my Xy
command line and my screen treated the Editor.exe location as my root
C: directory and listed my document folders which were contained in my
XyWrite folder on the Mac. I don't know what it would do if I moved
Editor.exe to say the root of my HD? It might perhaps list the folders
on my HD?
Under Virtual PC when I do a "dir" command of my networked Mac drive it
lists folders and files but of course can't really manipulate them if
they aren't items that can be used cross platform and it always
shortens long file names to the first allowable letters and the ~ for
the remainder.
I am using the Radnor DOSBox GUI program which contains the current
0.61 version of DOSBox. Of course with all Open Source programs the
time between versions, as well as the stability and pgm options, will
depend upon the contributions of the community in writing code, working
bugs, beta testing.
IMHO most emulators like DOSBox, Wine, et al. are created primarly by
folks in the gaming sector of computing. A sign that I am getting older
is that most persons I talk about computer with had their first word
processing experiences with a Windows based WP like MS Works, MS Word,
or Corel WordPerfect rather than XyWrite, WordStar, or WordPerfect DOS.
Also most have grown up with some flavor of GUI rather than a blank
command line.
> Harry Binswanger
> hb@xxxxxxxx