Re alternative methods for starting Xy

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

This was my last opportunity til next Thursday to play about
on the office XP box, so I did some experiments with the
different ways of launching Xy (or any DOS app) under XP,
and made some interesting discoveries. (Apologies to those
to whom this is old hat; there are considerable differences
from the way 9x does things.)
1. One of the reasons it's a good idea to launch Xy from a
shortcut is that you then (and, apparently, ONLY then) have
a memory tab on your properties sheet (the one accessed by
right-clicking the shortcut itself--and this item does
take). I set everything to Auto except EMS, which I put at
5120 (this was discussed a while back), and check Uses HMA.

2. Using a shortcut, and setting working directory to d:\xy4
(where that is editor.exe's directory) apparently obviates
any need to do CD or to log onto that drive (if, like me,you
keep your DOS apps on separate drive); it's done
automagically. Note that also happens if one just navigates
to editor.exe's directory in Explorer and then double-clicks
on editor.exe. Or does Start->Run and types d:\xy4\editor.exe.

3. If one opens a command prompt (Start->All
Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt) one is, apparently,
running cmd.exe, not command.com. At least Process Explorer
shows both the NTVDM and cmd.exe running. If once launches
with Start->Run d:\xy4\editor.exe, Process Explorer shows
only NTVDM, as it does with the shortcut method, and on
shelling to DOS from Xy, and issuing
cd /?
one gets the command.com options, not the cmd.exe ones
(command.com does not allow the /D option, which lets you
change drive and directory in one fell swoop). On the other
hand, if one alters the Program tab of the shortcut's
properties page so that it points, not simply to
d:\xy4\editor.exe but to
c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /k d:\xy4\editor.exe
thereby, one would think, forcing it to run under cmd.exe,
shelling to DOS and typing
cd /?
still yields the command.com options, though Process
Explorer shows cmd.exe running as well as NTVDM. I
unfortunately forgot to check what Cd /? yields when shelled
to DOS from a Xy session launched from a previously opened
Command Prompt (cmd.exe).

In all cases, fonts can only be set by right-clicking the
title bar of the running app (running in a window);
attempting to do it from the fonts tab of the shortcut's
property page (accessed by right-clicking the shortcut on
the desktop, then chosing properties) doesn't take.

Another reason to have a separate shortcut for Xy is that
you can then have another for a plain vanilla command
prompt, and switch between them, without having to do DOS/nv
in Xy--and risk getting OOM.

Anyway, short form: create a shortcut for Xy and launch from
that.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx