Re: on and off topic re purchase of new pc with dos for xywrite

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Avrom Fischer wrote:
> It comes with a four year warranty and AMEX adds another year if I use my AMEX card which I intend to do.
The warranty is the best thing about the deal. Otherwise, it sounds
overpriced and overkill to me. Does it have the following:
PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports? (You need these if you're going to run
DOS; even assuming the BIOS supports USB on boot, it grabs RAM you may
well need for EMS.)
A parallel port? (Granted, typ lets one print to USB, but I think you
need to be running some version of Windows for Ghostscript and GSView
to work, no?)
The right VGA connector for your existing monitor? See what kind of
plug your monitor has: if it has 15 pins in three rows, that's an
analog connector; if it looks like a radiator, that's digital. They
have to be the same kind.
> Patricia I was surprised that I did not have to pay microsoft for another copy of xp.
Depends on what kind of copy you have. If you bought XP shrink-wrapped
in a box, you can transfer it from one PC to another, so long as the
previous machine is dead or you have completely removed it from the
hardware. The original End-User License Agreement on the OEM copies
said the same, but then M$ decided that OEM copies were the soul of
the machine, and no reincarnation would be allowed. So if you got your
copy of XP with your previous machine, you may have problems when you
try to activate it.
> As I explained in my prior emails I intend to use a dual boot system with xp and either dos or
> win98se.
And as I have explained (evidently not clearly enough) you will most
probably NOT be able to run Win 98 on that box for lack of drivers.
The manufacturers have stopped writing drivers for Win98 since (even
before) M$ stopped supporting it. And Windows without the proper
hardware drivers is going to be incessant problems.
 Is it possible to create a dual boot system with xp where a dos
kernel is already on the system or do I need to have windows 98se as
the other operating system.
Jordan is the expert on this. I think you have to install DOS first.
Use a DOS boot floppy, run Fdisk (better make sure you have a
partition utility from the disk manufacturer; both Western Digital and
Maxtor have them, I know, because fdisk is going to choke on that big
a disk), create a primary partition, and install DOS there. Then stick
the XP DC in the CD drive and boot to it. It should ask where you want
to install. Tell it to use the unpartitioned area, and do NOT let it
use the whole of it. Leave some space unpartitioned, and once XP is up
and running use--I think it's called management console or
something--to create a secondary partition for some logical drives. I
recommend:
d: DOS apps (Xy goes here, and that way, if you make it Fat32, you can
access it from both DOS and XP
e: Data; again, make FAT32
f: Util; put pagefile.sys here.

Jordan, can you advise here? I'm out of my depth, having no use for XP.
my two concerns are having dos to run xywrite without problems and xp
for surfing the net and email.
You know, there is a version of DOSBox for Windows. Maybe you should
try that. I think you're going to get very tired of rebooting very
soon. Personally, I think a jerky cursor (which is the only real
problem running Xy under XP that I've heard of, and that can be fixed
with Tame) is not worth going through the hassle of a dual boot
system. (I have other reasons for refusing to "upgrade" to XP; an
alleged inability to run Xy isn't among them, for I KNOW it can be done.)
> Is it possible to convert xywrite files to pdf within the dos kernel itself or the dos kernel of
> win98se.
I'm fairly sure it would have to be a two-step process with a reboot
in between: printf to a file, using PostGhost as your printer driver
(within DOS). Then reboot to Windows and use GSView to convert the .ps
file to a PDF. Unless there's a DOS version of GSView?
 As I understand it the salesman thought the dos would simply be
command.com (and I assume the two hidden files).
No, no. You want some other parts of DOS. Xcopy for sure, attrib,
DOSkey (darn useful if you're as fumble-fingered a typist as I),
fdisk, Mscdex, deltree, label, move, mem, sort. But think about some
of the other DOSes: FreeDOS, Caldera (which I think is a reincarnation
of Novell 7, which was what TTG--and I--ran Xy on back then).

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx