W2K - comments & questions

["Martin J. Osborne" osborne@xxxxxxxx]

  1. Many thanks, Robert & Myron!

  Robert Holmgren wrote:

> you say (WITHOUT d:\path\ in front of editor!!):
> %windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c editor.exe/e4000 ,d:\path\startup2.int

  2. I can't get that to work---XyWrite starts, but it doesn't run
startup2.int. The problem seems to be the switch on editor.exe:
%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c editor.exe ,d:\path\startup2.int
works fine. (I was careful not to put a space between "editor.exe" and "/e4000"
in the first case above.)  (At the moment I'm running XyW without the switch
(as I have done for the last 14 or so years), without any problems. I see that
the manual (page 2-34 of the CRG) says that XyW "automatically" uses up to 4megs
of expanded memory.)

Myron Gochnauer wrote:

> BTW, the best settings I have found for Xy IV in a Win2K DOS box are:

> Layout --- screen buffer size & window size = 80 width x 50 height

  3. That needs to be coupled with a
df sl=50
setting in the settings.dfl (or whatever) file, right? Is 50 the maximum
setting for sl? The Xy4DOS manual doesn't say so, but I can't get anything
bigger to have any effect.


> Font --- Lucida Console 14 pt.
> The combination of a 50 line high box plus Lucida Console 14pt type comes
> close to filling the screen on my Thinkpad from top to bottom, though not
> from side to side.

  4. I guess the best font depends on the screen resolution etc. (14pt is too
small for me, for example.) But in any case, here's a question: is it possible
to create and use one's own fonts for programs running in cmd.exe windows? I
know this is possible when running full screen---indeed, I have a font that I
created that replaces ASCII 128-255 with math and Greek symbols that I
need---but I have never found a way of doing the same thing for a DOS window
(though I'd very much like to do so).

  5. Even though it doesn't currently solve the keyboard-response problem,
Tame is essential, it seems, when running DOS programs---otherwise Windows
programs come to a near-standstill.

  6. When running a DOS program in cmd.exe (as a LNK---many thanks, Robert,
for the excellent discussion of LNKs and PIFs), it seems not possible to block
alt-space and other useful keystrokes from Windows. (By contrast, it is
possible when running under command.com.) Am I right?

--
Martin J. Osborne
Department of Economics
150 St. George Street
University of Toronto
Toronto
M5S 3G7
Canada
http://www.economics.utoronto.ca

martin.osborne@xxxxxxxx
http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/osborne
+1 416-978-5094