Xy on Mac under DOSBox (was Re: House Call)

[Lisa Kleinholz lkleinholz@xxxxxxxx]

--- Harmon Seaver  wrote:
> Note that both vmware and parallels
> allow you to install just dos (or any other x86 OS), as does bochs.


I have been experimenting (as a non-power, fairly clueless user) with
Xy on an Intel Mac.

Parallels does not work because you can't easily get files to and from
the MAC OS from DOS (if you're using DOS alone and not Windows).

Last March I paid someone to install DOSBox (he was originally going to
use Parallels, but couldn't get it to do what I needed). He also put
the Xy files into a Xy folder for me -- I didn't ask him to do that,
but he found files on the Mac (leftover from testing under Parallels)
and did it to make sure it would work.

Since I live on constant deadline, I left things at that point until
last week.

Then, in Maine on vacation with only my Mac, I had an opportunity to
use Xy for Dos in DOSBox for real work rather than testing. (Someone
was pushing me on a deadline that I'd planned to meet after vacation,
alas).

Working with Xy on my MacBook in DOSBox was great!

Though the window was tiny, switching to full screen with ALT-enter
worked well, and visually it resembled my original DOS setup better
than anything I've tried under XP.

Files:

I can find a file in my XyDOS folder, with Word on the mac and import
it.

A file I saved as a text file in Word, however, when moved to the XYDOS
folder did not appear in Xy directory (when running Xy). When I called
it in Xy, however, it did open.

Files created in Xy DOS on other machines and moved to the MAC do show
up.

I can move and copy a file to and from the XyDOS folder, from desktop
or elsewhere on Mac side.

Speed/conflicts:

I did not experience major conflicts--though sorting a long file took a
tad longer than it does with Tame on XP. No crashes.

Configuration/Keyboard:

I adjusted MacBook so that to access function keys for Mac purposes, I
have to press fn, which allows me to use those keys under XY without
conflict with Mac itself.

I have not tried using an external keyboard, but hope to try it soon.

My XYDOS 4 is mostly configured as it was out of the box (sorry,
Robert, I still haven't moved the save-gets into U2, but promise to do
soon).

The one problem I had was that DOSBox is configured to use CTRL and ALT
keys for its own purposes. I disabled the ones that conflicted with the
key combinations I needed for Xy and mostly everything worked fine.
When I rework my XY keyboard files, I'll deal more thoroughly with this
problem.

Printing/conversion:

I have no need to print from Xy, so that's not an issue for me. I use
XY for writing and indexing. Then I import everything into Word for
formatting, which I do simply by opening the Xy file in Word with
conversion from MS-DOS. I have format templates in word that I copy
text files into, after opening them in Word.

This is what's easiest for me, because all I really want in Xy is bold
and italics, which I can convert either in Xy or Word with
search/replace.

Conclusion:

After about 6-8 months of misery/confusion Xy works well enough on my
Mac that I can do real work.

Thanks to all who've given me advice and encouragement over the past
year.

Lisa