Re: USB printing ??? & DOS2USB pgm

[Wolfgang Bechstein bechstein@xxxxxxxx]

Lest I be accused of false representation, here's a follow-up on my
Easter morning yarn...

After loudly professing that I had gone back to my warm and fuzzy Win 98
environment, I in fact immediately flip-flopped, gave Win XP another
whirl, and discovered that it was only a single redefined key in my KBD
file which had caused all the trouble. It's a key that doesn't exist on
English-language keyboards (used to switch between double-byte and
single-byte character width in a Japanese environment), though by manner
of placement it is a close relative of the "Tilde" key. Once I commented
that out (reluctantly, because as an additional shifting key it let me
perform a lot of useful functions my fingers have become accustomed to),
Xy4 in a DOS-Box under Win XP started to behave quite acceptably,
although slightly slower than in a DOS-Box under Win 98 on the same
computer. I then took a drastic step and reprogrammed the Tab key (which
as I realized I use only infrequently) to take on the work of my
lobotomized pseudo-Tilde key, and soon found myself typing away quite
merrily, at times even (almost) forgetting that this was XP and not 98
humming under the hood.

Later today, another annoyance was cleared up, thanks to M.W.Poirier who
alerted me as to where the Sieber (not Siebert, as I misremembered them)
fonts could be found (namely here: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/english.html).
Actually, all I needed was a reminder of what their names are, because I
have already long ago purchased them but had no record or clear
recollection of their whereabouts. I was able to install them in XP, and
use them for the DOS-Box which now looks much more pleasing in a variety
of sizes. So--horror of horrors--I may actually end up using XP at least
part of the time (not least because web access via my fiber-optic
connection is notably faster under XP than under 98).

I do have one more quibble, though, and I wonder whether anyone might
have a suggestion. I use an old utility called PRISM that provides easy
access to the full DOS color palette (and I know that Carl uses a
similar program called VPT). Together with the color modes in Xy, this
allows screen designs that are aesthetically and ophthalmologically much
more sound than the stolid DOS default offerings. In Windows 98, PRISM
works its color magic not only in full-screen DOS but also when DOS is
running in windowed mode. Under XP, neither PRISM nor VPT seem to have
any effect in windowed mode (only full-screen). Some Googling so
far has turned up no similar utilities of more recent vintage. For the
reasons mentioned in my earlier message, I have at present uninstalled
TameDOS. Does that provide access to a wide range of color settings in
windowed mode, perchance?

Wolfgang Bechstein
bechstein@xxxxxxxx