Re: On button, & straight to the Command Line

[Wolfgang Bechstein bechstein@xxxxxxxx]

Leslie Bialler  wrote:

> > Wouldn't that mean running Windows from inside Windows?
>
> Yes.

No. Few people are aware of this fact, but plain, non-NT Windows up
to version 98 (and probably Me) actually loads DOS (yes, that DOS)
*before* it loads its (vastly more bulky) GUI overhead. The procedure
I described truncates the boot process, giving you the option to stop
while still in DOS and load the GUI at any time you choose. If you
run XyWrite from the DOS prompt after booting in this way, you are
not running it under Windows, as it were, because the Windows GUI
isn't loaded yet.

For the sake of experimentation, I just tried the above. While
shelled out from XyWrite (440K of memory free), I typed "Win".
Windows loaded and seemed to run normally. However, when I quit
Windows, the computer did *not* return to XyWrite but shut itself
down, probably because it is a laptop designed to function that way
(it shuts off the power when you quit Windows). If it were a desktop,
I would think it would return to XyWrite. However, note that I am
NOT advocating this kind of setup. I just described it because
someone asked whether it could be done

I normally run XyWrite in a DOS session under Windows, which works
just fine.

> The best way to run _any_ DOS version of XyWrite under Win 9x, NT, or (I
> would suppose) ME is to go to My Computer, right click on the editor icon,
> click on create shortcut, drag the icon to the desktop, and click on it: you
> are in business.

There are a myriad other ways to create a shortcut for XyWrite (why
should the "Editor" icon be under My Computer?), and as long as you
have the Properties set up right, they all work.

> Trying any other approach (such as, but not limited to,
> opening the program in a DOS Window or running the program in DOS only mode)
> will create conditions that, as Alice observed when regarding bottles marked
> poison, are likely to disagree with you sooner or later.

Poppycock.

> And surely to run XyWrite under Windows and then run another version of
> Windows under XyWrite leads us to the realm of the Infinite Regression, where
> I am reasonably sure none of us wish to dwell.

See above, then come back here.

Wolfgang Bechstein
bechstein@xxxxxxxx