Re: Win 7 64 Bit (Metapad)--and more

[Jon P xywrite4@xxxxxxxx]

Carl--

You were right about the missing underscore, and I added cmd.exe into my C:\XY directory--DIR says
it's there, along with Metapad--but it didn't help.

DOSBox sees a designated directory--in my case C:\XY--as the entire DOS C:\ drive. So if I'm using
XY4 within DOSBox and CAll a file, the default directory to write to is C:\, and that file is
C:\file, not C:\XY\file, as it is to open the file in Notepad. That's why I'm having XE call
C:\Metapad.exe. I'm pretty sure that's correct.

Anyway, with the corrected underscore, running XE xetest.txt (Helpkey) now gave me "This
program cannot be run in DOS mode," which is what I got before when trying to run Metapad by
itself in DOSBox. So it looks like it's reaching Metapad but won't run it.

Anyway, this is a minor problem--I can still switch to Windows and Notepad--so probably not worth
any more mindshare. I have no doubt that if and when you move up (only figuratively speaking) to
64-bit Windows and DOSBox, you'll figure out the equivalent of CLIP.exe to the delight of us all.

Meanwhile, another disappointment of DOSBox is that it will only open two XY4 files. Open a third
one, and you can only switch between the two most recently opened files.  That's probably
intractable.

And then there's the font question. DOSBox forums say an application can only use its built-in
fonts. Although my XY4 also loads Speedo fonts and a packet of fonts I got from Kari Eveli, I can't
get anything but Courier (which luckily looks good).

In SETTINGS.DFL, I have DF uf=DUTCH  and DF sy=23,10,0. Both untouched by me for decades. 
I tried simply commenting out DF uf=DUTCH and reloading XY4, but still got Courier onscreen.

Are there other font settings somewhere to play with?

And hey, since I'm now looking through U2...I just noticed True Quotes, but I can't tell what to run
on the command line (it's XPL mystery symbols). Can someone tell me how to run that macro?


Jon Pareles




>
> On my XP computer, I pasted your XE attachment bits into 
> XYWWWEB.REG and XYWWEB.U2. Then I copied the new .REG and
> .U2 versions into the Windows 7 computer along with
> Metapad.exe, all in my directory C:\XY, which is mounted as
> C: to DOSBox
>
> At first trying to run XE I got Application Error, so I
> changed your portable, variable-finding path for Metapad
> (which refers to Windows beyond DOSBox, which DOSBox
> probably can't see) to:
>
> XE Use_Editor=c:\metapad.exe
>
> But running XE xetest.txt (Helpkey) I get an error message:
> Illegal Command cmd.exe. There's no CMD.exe in my XY
> directory, which is all DOSBox can see; as I understand it,
> DOSBox substitutes for CMD.exe. 
>
> When I tried to run Metapad from the C: prompt in the DOSBox
> simulated DOS window, after quitting XY4,  I got the error
> message,  "This program cannot be run in DOS mode."
>
> Which I think means that DOSBox wants a DOS editor, which
> without something like U2's Clip.exe won't be able to reach
> the Windows clipboard. Catch-22?
>
> Jon Pareles
>
>
>
> Reply to note from Jon P 
> Tue, 27 Nov 2012
> 14:24:52 -0800 (PST)
>
> Jon:
>
> > Catch-22?
>
> Maybe. But first let's clear up a couple of nits. I'm a
> little hazy
> about where Metapad.exe lives on your DOSBox machine. I
> thought you
> said C:\XY4, but in your e-mail the variable XE_Use_Editor
> points to
> "c:\metapad.exe" (root dir of C:). Also, the first
> underscore in
> "XE_Use_Editor" is a space. Maybe just a typo in your e-mail
> and not
> an actual error.
>
> Once you're square on the above ... what happens if you put
> both
> Metapad.exe and CMD.EXE in C:\XY4? Since CMD.EXE is not
> there now,
> copy it there. Open a CMD prompt in Win7 (not DOSBox), and
> at the
> command prompt enter:
>
> copy %windir%\SysWOW64\cmd.exe c:\xy4
>
> Double-check that Metapad.exe is in the directory pointed to
> by REG
> variable XE_Use_Editor. Then give frame XE another try.
>
> I'm not sanguine about this working. As you know, I've never
> used
> DOSBox, but I fear that "Illegal command CMD.EXE" means that
> DOSBox
> is incapable of using CMD.EXE to launch a Windows program,
> like
> Metapad. In which case, you may be up a Metacreek without
> a....
>