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JP Software 4DOS Application Notes Version 4.01 -- June 8, 1992 Copyright 1988 - 1992, JP Software Inc., All Rights Reserved. Published by JP Software Inc., P.O. Box 1470, E. Arlington, MA 02174 USA, (617) 646-3975. This file provides information on using 4DOS with a variety of other software products. It is intended for use whenever you have a question about using another product with 4DOS, or suspect a compatibility problem. Inclusion of a product in this file does NOT mean there are compatibility problems with it! It only indicates that we have some information that may be useful to you when you use the product with 4DOS. Items in this file which were changed in 4DOS 4.01 are marked with "4.01" in the left margin. Other items have not been changed since version 4.0. This file is formatted at 58 lines per page, and contains form feeds and page footers. It is somewhat long, so you may prefer to view it with a file viewer such as the 4DOS LIST command. You can print this file on most PC printers using the command: copy appnotes.doc prn Printing it with a program that formats the pages is not likely to work due to the formatting included in the file. Our customers regularly ask us for recommendations on software to use with 4DOS. While we can't tell you what is best for your use or your system, at the end of this file we have included some comments on software we like and have found useful on our own systems here at JP Software. (6/92-4.01A) 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 1 Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Running 4DOS along with COMMAND.COM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Executing DOS Commands via Interrupt 2E . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Swapping to RAM Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4DOS and Other Command Line Editing Programs . . . . . . . . . . 7 4DOS and EXE File Compression Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4DOS.COM and C Language exec() Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Mouse Compatibility with 4DOS HELP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Information on Specific Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 MS-DOS APPEND Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 MS-DOS DATE and TIME Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 MS-DOS FASTOPEN Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 MS-DOS 4.0 and 5.0 FORMAT /S Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 MS-DOS 4.0+ SELECT Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1DIR+ (Bourbaki) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3COM Networks (3Com) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Alpha 4 (Alpha Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 ANSI.SYS (various manufacturers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Bookshelf CD-ROM (Microsoft) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 DESQview (Quarterdeck) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 DOORWAY BBS Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 DR-DOS (Digital Research) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Epsilon (Lugaru Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 FoxPro (Fox Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 GeoWorks Ensemble (GEOS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Hijaak (Inset Systems) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Kermit (Columbia University) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 LOGIMENU (Logitech) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Manifest (Quarterdeck) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Netware (Novell) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Novell MENU (Novell) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 OS/2 1.2, 1.3, and 2.0 (IBM / Microsoft) . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 PC Tools (Central Point Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Personal REXX (Quercus Systems) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 QEMM and QRAM (Quarterdeck) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 RBase (MicroRim) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Software Carousel (SoftLogic Solutions) . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 TSRCOM Utilities (TurboPower Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 UltraVision (Personics) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Windows 3.0 and 3.1 (Microsoft) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 XyWrite (XyQuest) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Programs Requiring PATH to be Under 128 Characters . . . . . . . 28 Checkit (Touchstone); Computer Select CD-ROM (Ziff-Davis); RenderMan (AutoDesk); VINES Network (Banyan); Windows 3.0 (Microsoft) 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 2 Software For Use With 4DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 3 Introduction ------------ We have made every effort to ensure that this file is as accurate and up to date as possible. Our information is based on our own investigations, reports from 4DOS beta testers, technical support calls, discussions with manufacturers of other products, and reports from our customers. Unfortunately, varying conditions between systems or between software releases can easily invalidate the results of previous tests. Therefore we cannot guarantee that every item in this file is accurate for all systems or will remain accurate over time; you may have to do your own testing to determine what works well on your system with the software you own. If you have a question or problem related to another program, first read through chapter 7 of the 4DOS manual ("Using 4DOS With Your Hardware And Software"). Chapter 7 gives general suggestions for using 4DOS with other products and for solving compatibility problems, and should always be used along with this file. If the information in Chapter 7 doesn't help, check below for both additional general suggestions which pertain to your question, and information on the specific product you are working with. Please note that some products are listed by category rather than or in addition to specific listings by product name; check the Table of Contents carefully to see where any particular product may be covered. Many of the items below refer to the 4DOS.INI file. See chapter 6 of the manual for a complete explanation of 4DOS.INI and the directives which can be used there. If you have a printed manual, also check MANMOD.DOC for directives which were added or modified since the manual went to press. Virtually all of your software will work with 4DOS with no trouble. If you do find an interaction or compatibility problem, it can probably be diagnosed easily with one of three methods: checking this file for specific information; trying different 4DOS swapping methods; and testing for interactions by removing all drivers and TSRs which are not absolutely necessary and then replacing them one at a time. These methods and other related techniques are described in Chapter 7 of the manual. Many popular software products are not covered in this file. If a program does not appear here, it simply means that as far as we know no additional information is necessary or useful when using that program with 4DOS. If you have a question or problem related to how 4DOS works with other hardware or software products, and it isn't addressed in chapter 7 or by these notes, contact JP Software or your dealer for technical support. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 4 General Information ------------------- Running 4DOS along with COMMAND.COM: You may find a very rare program which will not work under 4DOS, but runs properly under COMMAND.COM. If you have determined that the problem cannot be solved through configuration changes or by eliminating or reconfiguring a third program which is causing the problem, use this section to see how to run 4DOS and COMMAND.COM together in order to diagnose such a problem. There are two methods of loading COMMAND.COM before another program. The first is to load it only when a specific program is running. This can be accomplished with the following command (assuming COMMAND.COM is in the root directory of drive C:): c:\command /c progname options where "progname" is the program name (with path if necessary) and "options" are any parameters for the program. This command will run COMMAND.COM, load and run the program, and upon exit from the program will exit from COMMAND.COM and return to 4DOS. If this is necessary to run a specific program, it can be defined as an alias: alias progname `c:\command /c progname %&` The "%&" passes all command line arguments on to the program. With this method, if the program is large COMMAND.COM may need to reload itself when the program exits. It will not be able to do so unless the COMSPEC is set properly. If you experience problems such as "Invalid COMMAND.COM" errors when using this method, use a batch file like the following to run the program in question (the SETLOCAL and ENDLOCAL cause COMSPEC to be restored to its previous value after the program exits). You will need to modify this file if your copy of COMMAND.COM is not stored in the C:\ directory: setlocal set comspec=C:\COMMAND.COM c:\command /c progname %& endlocal The second method is more drastic: you can start your system under COMMAND.COM, then run 4DOS. This approach is rarely necessary, and will use about 4 - 5K of additional RAM for the resident portion of COMMAND.COM. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 5 The following steps will set your system up to boot with COMMAND.COM, and run 4DOS automatically as part of the boot process: (1) Set up the SHELL= statement in CONFIG.SYS to run COMMAND.COM, or leave it out entirely. In other words, set it up just as you would if 4DOS were not on your system. (2) Separate your AUTOEXEC file into two parts: part 1, which remains in AUTOEXEC.BAT, should contain any commands you wish to have COMMAND.COM execute before 4DOS is started. This might include loading any TSRs which you cannot get to load properly under 4DOS. Part 2, which you must place in a separate batch file (we suggest the name 4DAUTO.BAT, but you can use any name with a .BAT or .BTM extension), should contain the commands you wish to have 4DOS execute when it is started. (3) Place the following line as the last line in the modified AUTOEXEC.BAT: 4DOS parameters filename where "parameters" represents the appropriate 4DOS parameters for swapping, environment and history size, etc. (see the Installation section of the manual), and "filename" is the name of the new batch file you created for part 2 of your old AUTOEXEC file. Do NOT include a /P in the "parameters" or 4DOS will re-run AUTOEXEC and therefore load itself again, ad infinitum! (4) Be sure that KSTACK.COM is loaded in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file or your 4DOS startup file if you wish to use the 4DOS KEYSTACK command. This will load COMMAND.COM, execute the commands in AUTOEXEC, load 4DOS, execute the commands in your new batch file, and then give you the normal 4DOS prompt. There is one drawback to this second approach: because 4DOS is not loaded with a /P, the EXIT command will return you to COMMAND.COM if you inadvertently enter it at the primary shell prompt. You can get around this by including the /P parameter despite the caution above, and then placing the following line at the start of AUTOEXEC.BAT: if "%@eval[2+2]"=="4" quit This line tests the 4DOS variable function %@EVAL, which will return "4" under 4DOS and remain unchanged under COMMAND.COM. If %@EVAL returns a "4" the statement QUITs the batch file, preventing the infinite loop described above. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 6 Executing DOS Commands via Interrupt 2E: COMMAND.COM contains an undocumented feature which allows programs to execute DOS commands by passing the command through software interrupt number 2E (hex). Very few programs use this feature, but full, documented support for it is available within 4DOS for those circumstances where it's needed. If you have a program which is supposed to execute DOS commands and it does not work under 4DOS, first read Chapter 7 of the manual, check your COMSPEC setting, and check that enough memory is available for 4DOS to execute as a secondary shell. If these appear correct, and the program still doesn't work, it may be trying to use INT 2E to execute commands. If you believe this is the case, try setting the FullINT2E directive in 4DOS.INI to Yes: FullINT2E = Yes (see chapter 6 of the manual for more information on 4DOS.INI). Full INT 2E support is normally left disabled because it adds about 100 bytes to the resident size of 4DOS, and it isn't needed in most circumstances. See Appendix C of the ASCII manual, or the MANMOD.DOC file if you have a printed manual, for technical details on the INT 2E interface. Swapping to RAM Disks: In order to swap the primary shell to a RAM disk the RAM disk must be completely defined in CONFIG.SYS via a DEVICE= statement (most RAM disks are set up this way). RAM disks completely or partially defined in AUTOEXEC.BAT (such as the RAM disk / cache combination in Multisoft's PC Kwik Power Pak) cannot be used for swapping the primary shell, because AUTOEXEC.BAT has not been executed at the time that the root shell is loaded, and hence the RAM disk does not exist at that point. 4DOS and Other Command Line Editing Programs: Programs such as Anarkey (Moderne Software), PCED (Cove Software), and ReDOS (Multisoft) will work properly with 4DOS. However these programs require the use of SETDOS /L1 to operate, which will disable 4DOS's command recall and command line editing. In most cases you will be able to switch back and forth between 4DOS editing and the other editor by toggling the SETDOS /L state. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 7 When another editor is used 4DOS's command history will be maintained, and can be viewed with HISTORY, but will not be available for recall until a SETDOS /L0 is executed. 4DOS aliases, executable extensions, and other features will be active regardless of the SETDOS /L state. Aliases will be processed after any processing done by the other editing program. You must use care with other programs that provide an aliasing capability to avoid confusion if a command is expanded by both the other program and 4DOS! 4DOS and EXE File Compression Programs: If you use a file compression program like PKLITE, LZEXE, or DIET, you must use caution when compressing 4DOS files. You should be able to compress the 4DOS.COM file with no trouble. However if you have a copy of 4DOS that you intend to brand with your name and serial number, you must brand it BEFORE you run the file compression program, or the BRAND program will fail. Similarly, HELPCFG will not be able to modify your HELP system colors if you compress the 4HELP.EXE program. The only compressed program files distributed with 4DOS are HELPCFG.EXE, and 4MAKE.EXE on the 4DOS / 4OS2 Utility Disk; these files are compressed with the PKLite Professional package. 4DOS.COM and C Language exec() Functions: Most PC implementations of the C language contain an exec() function which overlays the C program with a new program. These exec() functions load .COM and .EXE files differently. Some exec() functions determine which type of file they are executing based on the "header" contained in the file (this is the method normally used by DOS), but others -- including those used in Borland C++ and Lattice C -- use the file extension to determine the loading method. Those exec() functions which use the file extension will not work properly if they attempt to run 4DOS.COM, because 4DOS.COM is actually an EXE file (these same functions will fail with any file whose extension does not match its type, even though such files can be executed properly by DOS itself). The workaround for this problem is to rename 4DOS.COM to 4DOS.EXE, or make a copy of 4DOS.COM and call it 4DOS.EXE. For users of Borland C, a fix is available for this problem (the fix updates certain functions in the Borland C run-time library). You can download this fix from the Borland support area on CompuServe. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 8 Mouse Compatibility with 4DOS HELP: The 4DOS HELP system depends on correct operation of your mouse driver. If your mouse doesn't work in HELP, or you have trouble with mouse "droppings" (characters left behind by the mouse cursor), be sure you have the most up to date working version of your mouse driver that is available. Users of Microsoft serial and PS/2 mice may notice a long delay when the HELP system starts. This is due to the long initialization time required for these mice, and is a function of the mouse driver, not the HELP system. If you don't use the mouse in HELP and want to speed up HELP startup, set HelpOptions = /X in 4DOS.INI. This will disable all mouse access in the HELP system. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 9 Information on Specific Products -------------------------------- The information below is listed alphabetically by product, with manufacturers' names included. MS-DOS commands are listed before other software products. Items marked with two asterisks [**] after the product name were supplied by users, and have not been tested by JP Software. MS-DOS APPEND Command: Unlike most other commands in MS-DOS, APPEND has both an external portion and an undocumented internal portion. The first time APPEND is run the external portion is executed, and loaded into memory as a TSR (memory-resident program). Subsequent uses of APPEND to adjust the APPEND path use an undocumented internal interface between COMMAND.COM and the TSR portion of APPEND. 4DOS does not support the internal portion of APPEND command. This means that you cannot change the APPEND path directly from 4DOS. However you can still use APPEND with 4DOS. APPEND should initially be loaded in the usual way, from AUTOEXEC or any other batch file, or from the command line. However to change the APPEND path after APPEND has been loaded for the first time, you must run APPEND from COMMAND.COM, not from 4DOS. To do this, enter the following command (modify the command appropriately if COMMAND.COM is not in the directory C:\): c:\command /c append [new append path list] You could also set up a 4DOS alias to do the above command for you, for example: alias app `c:\command /c append` which would be invoked with the command app [new path list] The /X switch can be used, and it will affect 4DOS directory searches for many 4DOS commands (as it does for COMMAND.COM). Please note that this makes APPEND very dangerous: if you APPEND a directory with /X and then (say) delete *.BAK when no such files exist in the current directory, then the .BAK files in the APPENDed directory will be deleted instead. The APPEND /E switch will not work with 4DOS. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 10 ! CAUTION: In our opinion APPEND is an extremely dangerous command. It is capable of "fooling" programs into thinking they are accessing one file when they are really accessing another one with the same name in a different directory. This can either do just what you want, or cause all sorts of trouble, depending on the circumstances. In particular, this behavior can cause 4DOS to place descriptions which go with files in one directory in the description file for another directory, because with APPEND running 4DOS can't tell whether APPEND has opened a file different from the one it asked for. If you must use APPEND to make certain applications work, we STRONGLY suggest that you set up the aliases described above, and load APPEND in AUTOEXEC.BAT with an empty path. Then, for each application, set up an alias to run it that is similar to the following: alias myprog `app c:\mydata^d:\util\myprog.exe^app ;` This alias sets the APPEND path, runs the application, and clears the APPEND path. When used in this way APPEND is less likely to cause trouble because it is disabled except when it is explicitly needed. In MS-DOS version 4.0 the new APPEND /PATH:OFF switch mitigates this problem somewhat; in particular it will keep 4DOS file description files from getting mixed up between directories. For this reason 4DOS will automatically set this switch if it detects that you are running APPEND and DOS 4.0 or above. MS-DOS DATE and TIME Commands: Most PC systems automatically set the hardware clock date and time (which is maintained while the system is turned off, and is different from the DOS date and time) when the corresponding DOS command is executed. In most such cases the hardware manufacturer has implemented this capability within the BIOS built into the system. This type of implementation is compatible with 4DOS, and the 4DOS DATE and TIME commands will set the hardware clock properly. A very small number of manufacturers have modified the version COMMAND.COM which they sell with their PCs to perform this function. In these cases, 4DOS's DATE and TIME commands, which do not have such hardware-specific modifications, will not set the hardware clock. If you normally set the hardware clock's date and time with DOS commands, and they don't work under 4DOS, first check your clock's battery! If it's OK, either run a secondary copy of COMMAND.COM to set the date and time, or invoke your system's SETUP or other utility program to do so. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 11 MS-DOS FASTOPEN Command: The MS-DOS FASTOPEN command generally works with 4DOS, but does not properly detect renamed directories, and may have similar problems when directories are removed. This is a problem in FASTOPEN, not in 4DOS. If you use FASTOPEN and rename a directory with the 4DOS REN command, then do a DIR command, you may see the old name and not the new one displayed; you may also occasionally have trouble accessing files under the new name. You can usually solve this problem by including a DiskReset = Yes directive in 4DOS.INI. If DiskReset = Yes does not work, the only other solution we are aware of is to reboot your system after renaming a directory. Our opinion is that, if you have the memory to support it, a disk caching program will provide a much greater and more effective performance improvement than FASTOPEN. MS-DOS 4.0 and 5.0 FORMAT /S Command: The FORMAT /S command in DOS 4 and DOS 5 will copy 4DOS.COM to a newly formatted floppy disk and rename it COMMAND.COM, which may not be what you want and is confusing at best. See the discussion of "4DOS and DOS" in Chapter 7 of the manual for more information on this issue. MS-DOS 4.0+ SELECT Command: In MS-DOS 4.0 and above a SELECT command was introduced. This external command is totally unrelated to the 4DOS internal SELECT command. If you need to use both, you can set up aliases to adjust how the command names are handled. For example, the following two aliases set up SELECT to access the DOS 4.0 external SELECT command (assumed to be stored in C:\DOS\SELECT.EXE), and SEL to access the internal 4DOS SELECT command: alias select c:\dos\select.exe alias sel *select 1DIR+ (Bourbaki): The information below was obtained from tests with 1DIR+ version 3.02, and verified with version 3.5 as well. 1DIR+ will work properly under 4DOS in its partially resident or EMS modes when set up as described below. It will work in its fully resident mode but cannot reliably exit back to 4DOS once started. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 12 If your copy of 1DIR+ is set up for fully resident mode, you can load it into memory under 4DOS to switch it to partially resident or EMS mode. To do so, from the directory where you normally run 1DIR+, type the commands: setdos /l1 1dirplus When 1DIR+ starts go to the "Wonder" / "Setup" menu and switch the mode to partially resident or EMS. Hit Esc to exit, and take the "Exit/Save" option (not "Save/Reset"). Back at the main menu, exit with "Wonder" / "Exit". At this point the system will probably hang. Reboot your computer. You should then be able to run 1DIR+ as described below. The above steps only need to be done once, when you install or re-install 1DIR+. Once 1DIR+ is set to EMS or partially-resident mode, you can start it from 4DOS using the following alias: alias 1dir `setdos /L1 ^ 1dirplus` The SETDOS /L1 is necessary to allow 1DIR+ to send command lines to 4DOS. You must do a SETDOS /L0 when you are done with 1DIR+ in order to get normal 4DOS command-line editing back. You can NOT do this within the alias above, as 1DIR+ returns to 4DOS in order to accomplish its work, and you don't want to switch back to /L0 mode until 1DIRPLUS has been removed from memory. If, after exiting from 1DIR+, you find that 4DOS's command line editing and history are unavailable, it is because you forgot to do the SETDOS /L0. If you go in and out of 1DIR+ regularly aliases like the following can be used to make the process quick: alias 1d `setdos /L1 ^ 1dirplus` alias 1e setdos /L0 4.01 If you run batch files from the 1DIRPLUS "compose" feature, you may find that INPUT commands in the batch file don't work properly unless they are preceded by SETDOS /L0. You must also do a SETDOS /L1 before the end of the batch file, or 1DIRPLUS won't pop up properly when the batch file is finished. For example: setdos /l0 input Enter your name: %%name setdos /l1 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 13 3COM Networks (3Com): [**] Some users report that 3Com network software will not load properly if UMBLoad = Yes is used in 4DOS.INI. If you have trouble with a 3Com network and 4DOS, try removing the UMBLoad and UMBEnvironment directives from your 4DOS.INI file. Alpha 4 (Alpha Software): [**] Alpha 4 does not work properly if you have too much environment space in use when it is started. You can use the 4DOS SETLOCAL, ENDLOCAL, and UNSET commands to decrease the amount of environment space in use before starting Alpha 4. For details on this technique see the section on "Solving Software Compatibility Problems" in chapter 7 of the 4DOS manual. ANSI.SYS (various manufacturers): If you have trouble with screen scrolling in 43-line or 50-line mode, try a different version of ANSI. We have had good results with PC Magazine's free utility ANSI.COM, and with the ANSI- UV.SYS program distributed with Personics' UltraVision EGA / VGA enhancement software. 4.01 Some display-related device drivers may "fool" 4DOS into thinking an ANSI driver is present when this is not the case. If this happens you will see ANSI strings like "[2J" displayed on-screen when you use the CLS and COLOR commands. To correct the problem, place an ANSI = No directive in 4DOS.INI, or a SETDOS /A2 command in AUTOEXEC.BAT. Bookshelf CD-ROM (Microsoft): [**] Microsoft Bookshelf uses the environment variable CDPATH, which is also used (for a totally different purpose) by 4DOS. If you are using MS Bookshelf and want to set a CDPATH variable for 4DOS, set _CDPATH instead. 4DOS will search for _CDPATH first; when it is found, 4DOS will use it, and ignore CDPATH. DESQview (Quarterdeck): Most information about DESQview is in chapter 7 of the manual. 4.01 4DOS 4.0 automatically "cleans up" its resources (releases the shell number and deletes any disk swap file) when you Close a DESQview window from the DESQview menu without EXITing from 4DOS. However this feature has a side effect: it disables the Quit option on the DESQview menu (this is due to the design of 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 14 DESQview, not to anything within 4DOS). Version 4.01 gives you control over this behavior with the DVCleanup directive in 4DOS.INI. If DVCleanup is set to Yes (the default), 4DOS will work as it did in version 4.0. Setting DVCleanup to No will disable 4DOS's DESQview close window cleanup code and thereby reenable the Quit choice on the menu. However this will prevent 4DOS from cleaning up its resources when you Close a 4DOS window from the menu, rather than with the EXIT command. 4.01 DESQview includes the ability to assign "logical drives" to subdirectory paths to make access to commonly used directories easier, or to support older applications that can't handle subdirectories. This is similar to the DOS SUBST command. 4DOS commands like DIR and COPY may not work as you expect on DESQview logical drives, because DESQview does not support certain standard DOS calls which 4DOS uses to determine whether a name you enter is the name of a file or a subdirectory. If you are using specific filenames without wildcards, 4DOS commands will generally work properly on DESQview logical drives. However problems may occur with "implied wildcards" (for example, when 4DOS interprets DIR A* as DIR A*.*), filename completion, and other wildcard file access. We know of no circumstances where these problems would cause a loss of data. However for the sake of safety, when using DESQview logical drives we suggest you use the /N switches on commands like COPY and MOVE to verify the command's operation before files are actually modified. Under 4DOS, the DESQview DOS Services option will not work in its default configuration. To make DOS Services work under 4DOS, you must first create a batch file, DOSSERV.BAT, in your DESQview directory to run DOS Services under COMMAND.COM. (We are assuming that DESQview is in directory C:\DV and COMMAND.COM is in directory C:\; you will need to modify the settings below if your system is configured differently.) The batch file is: set comspec=c:\command.com c:\dv\dosserv c:\command exit Then, make the following changes on the DESQview change a program screen for DOS Services (items marked ** are on the second page of the screen): * Memory Allocation = 128K or greater * Program Name = C:\DV\DOSSERV.BAT (modify from previous value of C:\DV\DOSSERV). ** Close on Exit to DOS = N ** System Memory = 10K or greater ** Allow Close Window = N 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 15 Once these steps are taken, you should be able to open the DOS Services window normally. However you will not be able to close it with a close window command. Instead, go to the window where DOS Services allows you to compose a DOS command, and type EXIT to close the window. DOORWAY BBS Software: 4.01 DOORWAY uses the caret [^] in certain command line arguments. 4DOS will interpret this symbol as a command separator, and will not pass the line to DOORWAY properly. You can work around this problem by changing your 4DOS command separator permanently (with the CommandSep directive in 4DOS.INI) or temporarily when starting DOORWAY (with the SETDOS /C command), or by using the 4DOS escape character (ctrl-X) before each caret in the DOORWAY command line. DR-DOS (Digital Research): 4DOS will work properly as a command processor (including as the primary shell) under DR-DOS 3.4, 5.0, or 6.0. The information below was developed by testing 4DOS under DR-DOS 5.0 and 6.0. Internal vs. External Commands: DR-DOS 5.0's design makes the ASSIGN, JOIN, MORE, and SUBST commands internal (in MS-DOS / PC-DOS they are external). 4DOS supports all MS-DOS internal commands, but does not have internal support for ASSIGN, JOIN, MORE, and SUBST. To access these DR-DOS internal commands when using 4DOS as the command processor, you must set up aliases which run DR-DOS's COMMAND.COM. The following 4DOS aliases accomplish this (adjust these if COMMAND.COM is not in C:\): alias assign `c:\command /c assign %&` alias join `c:\command /c join %&` alias more `c:\command /c more %&` alias subst `c:\command /c subst %&` In DR-DOS 6.0 ASSIGN, JOIN, and SUBST were changed back to external commands, so the corresponding aliases are not necessary. For the MORE command, a much better alternative can be set up by aliasing it to the 4DOS LIST command: alias more list /s This provides a scrollable, full-screen display rather than the simple paged display offered by DR-DOS (or MS-DOS) MORE. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 16 HILOAD: 4DOS supports DR-DOS's HILOAD feature using the MS-DOS / PC- DOS command names of LOADHIGH or LH. To load a TSR high under DR-DOS, simply use the command: LH [programname] [options] If you want the command to be called HILOAD for complete DR- DOS compatibility, just set up an alias before using it: alias hiload lh Just as under MS-DOS, LOADHIGH and LH will not work properly unless you have memory management software loaded to provide upper memory block support. Because DR-DOS does not return any error to 4DOS if a LOADHIGH operation fails, 4DOS cannot report this condition to you. This means you must use the DR-DOS MEM program or another similar memory mapping utility to determine if your TSR was actually loaded high. File Passwords: 4DOS includes support for DR-DOS file passwords. However the command syntax used to access files with passwords is slightly different than under DR-DOS. First, the character used to separate passwords from filenames under DR-DOS is a semicolon [;], which 4DOS uses to separate parts of an "include list" (see the manual for details). Therefore, a slightly different syntax must be used when including a DR-DOS password in a 4DOS internal command which accepts wildcards: TWO semicolons should be used to separate the password and filename. 4DOS directory- related commands like MD and CD do not use wildcards and therefore a single semicolon should be used before a password in these commands. All other 4DOS commands which accept wildcards must use the double semicolon. DR-DOS external commands which accept the "password;filename" syntax will still use only a single semicolon. Second, DR-DOS hides files which are password-protected. This means that you must use 4DOS command switches which allow processing of hidden files (COPY /H, DEL /Z, DIR /A, MOVE /H, and SELECT /A) to access a password-protected file under DR-DOS. Passwords are not automatically preserved when copying or moving a file with 4DOS. However the hidden attribute will be preserved. This means that if you move or copy a passworded file and want it to be visible in its new location 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 17 or under its new name, you will have to manually remove the hidden attribute with ATTRIB. For example, to password-protect the file JUNK, copy it to drive A:, and then delete it: password junk /r:fred copy /h junk;;fred a: del /z junk;;fred To unprotect the password-protected file JUNK: password junk;fred /n 4.01 CONFIG.SYS SETs: DR-DOS allows you to put SET commands in CONFIG.SYS to set environment variables. 4DOS 4.01 will retrieve this information and store it in the 4DOS environment, as DR-DOS COMMAND.COM does. If you wish you can disable this feature by setting DRSets = No in 4DOS.INI. SuperStor: The version of SuperStor shipped with DR-DOS works well with 4DOS. However 4DOS.COM cannot be stored on a compressed drive; if it is, DR-DOS will not be able to find 4DOS during the boot process. Store 4DOS on your uncompressed boot drive instead. TASKMAX: 4DOS will work with TASKMAX as long as you start new tasks according to the instructions below. 4.01 You cannot load 4DOS's resident portion high with UMBLoad = Yes in your 4DOS.INI file when running TASKMAX. TASKMAX will hang the system if it is started while 4DOS is loaded high. In our tests we have found that the same restriction does not apply to the UMBEnvironment directive, which does appear to be compatible with TASKMAX. Some users also report that UMBLoad = Yes will work for secondary shells but not for the primary shell; the exact behavior appears to depend on your system and DR-DOS configuration. When TASKMAX is loaded it leaves the primary command processor running as task 1. One way to start another task is to pop up TASKMAX and press Ins. This starts another "instance" of the primary command processor, and may cause significant problems with 4DOS. The reason is that each task started in this way is a copy of the primary command processor, so all such tasks will use the same swap area. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 18 This will make changes to things like aliases, history, and SETDOS settings in one task "bleed through" to other tasks. The exact nature of the bleed-through will depend on the sequence of operations and the type of 4DOS swapping you use. This bleed-through will not necessarily hang your system but it may lead to very strange and undesired results, especially when running batch files simultaneously in more than one task. There is no way for 4DOS to detect or prevent this condition. We strongly recommend that you do NOT use Ins to start new 4DOS tasks, even if it temporarily appears to work properly on your system. Fortunately TASKMAX offers another way to start new tasks: the TASKMAX /C command. When executed from task 1, a command like: taskmax /c c:\4dos.com will start a new secondary copy of 4DOS as a new task. This new copy is a true secondary shell (not a copy of the primary shell) and will not cause the undesirable interactions described above. The same approach should be used when starting any task which needs a command processor. To start a task which runs a .BTM or .BAT file, use a command like this: taskmax /c c:\4dos.com /c startwp.bat This tells 4DOS to run the specified batch file, and exit automatically (removing the task from the task list) when the batch file is done. If you have tasks you start regularly using the approach described above, use a batch file or a set of 4DOS aliases to help automate the process. 4.01 Some users also report success at improving compatibility between TASKMAX and 4DOS if the FullINT2E directive is set to Yes in 4DOS.INI. JP Software has not tested this approach but you may wish to experiment with it on your system. Epsilon (Lugaru Software): [**] Epsilon can run 4DOS as a concurrent process, and pass commands to 4DOS for execution. In this mode it traps 4DOS's input requests and feeds the keystrokes to 4DOS. However it does not feed backspaces etc. -- only actual characters. This means that editing of input isn't seen by 4DOS. To fix the problem, either run 4DOS as a shell, and not as a concurrent process, or use a SETDOS /L1 for the copy of 4DOS that is run under Epsilon. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 19 To use the more flexible SETDOS /L1 approach you must use 4START.BAT (or .BTM) to set up the SETDOS /L1 before running Epsilon. Epsilon sets the environment variable EPSRUNS=Y whenever it starts a secondary shell; you can use this variable to set up 4START to work with Epsilon. Place the following line in 4START to issue the SETDOS /L1 command in a secondary shell started by Epsilon, but ignore it otherwise: if "%epsruns"=="Y" setdos /l1 FoxPro (Fox Software): [**] FoxPro works well with 4DOS, but may have trouble if 4DOS or the master environment is loaded high (in a UMB). If you experience compatibility problems between FoxPro and 4DOS, try removing any UMBEnvironment = Yes line in 4DOS.INI; if that doesn't help, try removing any UMBLoad = Yes line as well. GeoWorks Ensemble (GEOS): 4DOS is compatible with GeoWorks Ensemble. To run aliases or BTM files from the DOS Programs screen, you must setup a new program button with 4DOS.COM as the "primary file name" and your alias or BTM as the "optional command line parameters". Commands can be entered the same as on the DOS command line. Hijaak (Inset Systems): The Resident Program Manager (RPM) cannot be loaded from Hijaak's menu when 4DOS is the command processor. If you try to load RPM from the menu you will receive "Out of memory" errors once it is loaded. This is due to the internal design of Hijaak and is not a 4DOS bug. To work around this problem, use the LOADRPM command from the 4DOS prompt, as described in the Hijaak manual. LOADRPM will load RPM with no trouble under 4DOS, the problem occurs when loading from the Hijaak menu only. Kermit (Columbia University): [**] The Kermit communications program distributed by Columbia University requires FullINT2E = Yes in 4DOS.INI in order for its "DOS Functions" capability to work properly. LOGIMENU (Logitech): [**] 4.01 When using Logitech's LOGIMENU with 4DOS, LOGIMENU may leave a file open each time a menu is unloaded. Some users have been 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 20 able to work around this problem by loading the menu from a floppy disk or RAM disk rather than the hard disk, but in general you will probably need to load and unload LOGIMENU with a product like MARK and RELEASE (from TurboPower's freeware TSRCOM package, available on the 4DOS Utility Disk), which can help to clean up files left open by other programs. Manifest (Quarterdeck): Manifest generally works well with 4DOS. However if there is too little environment space free in 4DOS's master environment, the Hints Detail screen in Manifest may give unexpected results or hang your system. If this occurs, increase your environment size and / or remove some environment variables when starting Manifest if you plan to use the Hints Detail screen. Netware (Novell): [**] The information below was obtained from tests with Netware versions 2.12, 2.15, and 3.11 - 3.2, and Netware 386, and from discussions with Novell support personnel. Compatibility problems between Netware and 4DOS should be quite rare. When they do occur, the usual problem is a conflict between 4DOS and the Netware shell (NET3, NET4, NET5, NETX, EMSNETX, etc.). As a general rule, you should find that Novell's newer "NETX" shell versions have considerably fewer problems than the older NET3 / NET4 / NET5 versions, and we recommend their use with 4DOS whenever possible. 4.01 4DOS 4.01 includes a new 4DOS.INI directive, NetwareNames. You should always set NetwareNames = Yes on Netware systems. This will include strings in the resident portion of 4DOS which Netware searches for when it loads, and thereby avoid problems with destroyed environment variables during LOGIN. Setting NetwareNames = Yes will increase the resident size of 4DOS by 112 bytes. CAUTION: If NetwareNames is set to Yes and you BOOT FROM a Netware drive (a rare situation), the TEMP4DOS or TEMP variables must be SET explicitly to the appropriate drive and directory for each user to avoid conflicts in the directory used for pipe files (if NetwareNames is not used or you boot from a local drive, 4DOS and Netware will automatically set the proper drive and directory for pipe files). Some versions of Netware may occasionally produce a "pipe not found" message when loading under 4DOS. This message refers to Netware features related to COMMAND.COM, and does not apply to 4DOS; the message can be ignored. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 21 The 4DOS TRUENAME command and the @TRUENAME variable function will return true Netware server names when given a file name that refers to a Netware drive. However the returned name will not be correct if only the root directory name is given as a parameter (for example TRUENAME K:\). This is because Netware fails to recognize the true name request properly when only a root directory name is given; it is not a bug in 4DOS. If necessary, you can work around this problem by adding a simple "." to the request (TRUENAME K:\.). If you use 4DOS input redirection in a .BAT file which resides on a Netware drive, you may experience incorrect file assignments on some systems. When this occurs, an application run from within the batch file, or a secondary shell run from such an application, may loop forever attempting to read lines from the batch file rather than accepting input from the keyboard. For example: copy /r *.* g: < YES wp rem Now if the user shells from WP, the system will rem loop forever reading lines from the batch file or rem blank lines at the prompt. This problem occurs because Netware does not handle file assignments properly when 4DOS input redirection is used in a .BAT file. We are working with Novell to attempt to resolve the problem. You can work around it in several ways: * Change the batch file to a .BTM file. * Place the file BTM mode with the LOADBTM command at any point prior to the use of input redirection. * Move the file to a non-Netware drive. * User reports indicate that adding a line which does a "dummy" output redirection just before the input redirection will prevent the problem from occurring. For example: echo This is junk > junk.dat copy /r *.* g: < YES wp del junk.dat When loading a secondary 4DOS shell under Netware you can swap the shell to a network drive if you configure 4DOS properly. To do so you must take into account the fact that Netware closes all files -- including the 4DOS swap file -- each time an application exits. Under the default 4DOS configuration, the next time 4DOS uses the swap file, a swap file seek error will occur. However if you set SwapReopen = Yes in 4DOS.INI, 4DOS will reopen its 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 22 swap file each time such an error occurs, and the swapping will work. See the manual for details on SwapReopen. You can also avoid this problem by swapping to EMS, XMS, or a local hard disk or RAM disk. Use caution with the 4DOS UNSET command under Netware. When Netware is loaded it remembers the exact location of the COMSPEC variable in the master environment, and it may therefore have problems if variables such as COMSPEC and PATH are removed and reloaded in a different sequence. The UMBLoad directive in 4DOS.INI is compatible with Netware. The UMBEnvironment directive is compatible with Netware 3.11 and above, but not with earlier versions. Novell MENU (Novell): The Novell MENU system distributed with Netware uses Interrupt 2E to execute menu options, and therefore requires the use of the FullINT2E = Yes directive in 4DOS.INI. Once INT 2E support is enabled with this directive, Novell MENU should work normally under 4DOS. OS/2 1.2, 1.3, and 2.0 (IBM / Microsoft): 4DOS works properly as the shell in OS/2 DOS sessions under OS/2 1.2, 1.3, and 2.0. When installing OS/2's dual boot option you may receive a warning because your SHELL command in CONFIG.SYS points to 4DOS rather than COMMAND.COM. In our experience this warning can be ignored, and OS/2 will install properly. If you use OS/2, you will probably want to use our companion product 4OS2 in your OS/2 sessions. See the ORDERINF.DOC file for more information. The 4OS2 manual also includes detailed information on fine-tuning 4DOS for use in your OS/2 DOS sessions. PC Tools (Central Point Software): [**] The timed execution function in the PC Tools version 7 DESKTOP program does not work with 4DOS if DESKTOP is loaded directly. However if SWAPDT (distributed with PC Tools) is used to load DESKTOP, timed execution will work with 4DOS. The PCFormat program which comes with PC Tools is reported to require access to a copy of COMMAND.COM in order to create system (bootable) disks. Check your PCFormat documentation or consult Central Point Software for the required location for COMMAND.COM if you have trouble creating system disks with PCFormat. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 23 Personal REXX (Quercus Systems): [**] Personal REXX generally works well with 4DOS. However there are some issues you must take into account when using certain personal REXX features. The Personal REXX Batch Manager will not work with 4DOS as the command processor. The Batch Manager allows REXX programs to be executed from the command line without requiring a REXX or RX command prefix. The Batch Manager accomplishes this by using an undocumented feature of COMMAND.COM, and Mansfield Software states that this may not work on OEM versions of DOS, and advises that if it does not work, you should not use it. To work around this problem, use executable extensions to tell 4DOS to execute .REX files using REXX.EXE. To set this up, add a command like this to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: set .rex=d:\path\rexx.exe where "d:\path" is the drive and directory where REXX.EXE is stored. Once this executable extension is set up, REXX programs will run as though the Batch Manager was installed. Note, however, that the Batch Manager would attempt the execution of REXX programs before .BAT files, whereas 4DOS executable extensions are executed after .BTM and .BAT files. Personal REXX also provides the ADDRESS DOS statement, which allows the REXX program to pass commands to the DOS command processor. This function is implemented through the undocumented INT 2E interface to the command processor, which can be enabled in 4DOS with the FullINT2E=Yes directive in 4DOS.INI. If you use FullINT2E=Yes and have trouble with ADDRESS DOS, use Personal REXX's OPTIONS NEWCOM, or an environment variable, SET RXNEWCOM=YES, to force ADDRESS DOS to shell to a new copy of 4DOS. Note that the normal Personal REXX ADDRESS DOS function permits the environment to be permanently modified, whereas using OPTIONS NEWCOM, or setting the environment variable will not permit this. Quercus Systems discourages the use of the INT 2E approach in DOS 4.00 or later, and Personal REXX will default to not using INT 2E with these versions of DOS. QEMM and QRAM (Quarterdeck): The information below was obtained from tests with QEMM versions 5 and 6, and user reports on QRAM. Both QEMM and QRAM are compatible with 4DOS, and will allow you to load the 4DOS resident code and the master environment into high DOS memory (UMBs) via the UMBLoad and UMBEnvironment directives in 4DOS.INI. For these directives to work with QRAM 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 24 you must have QEXT loaded also (this is the normal method of loading QRAM). 4.01 QEMM's Stealth mode is compatible with 4DOS, but can decrease general system stability on some systems. If you have unusual problems or system hangs with Stealth turned on, try turning it off and see if the problems clear up (this is the procedure recommended by Quarterdeck in their Stealth documentation). QEMM allocates both XMS and EMS memory from the same memory area. Therefore it always reports the exact same amount of free XMS and EMS memory. You will see this in the free EMS and free XMS values displayed by the 4DOS MEMORY command -- they will be exactly the same under QEMM. Just remember that if both values are (say) 512K, that means you have 512K of free memory which can be allocated either way -- not 1024K! If you use FILES.COM to load part of the DOS file handle table into high memory, you must follow Quarterdeck's recommendations and keep a minimum of FILES=8 in CONFIG.SYS. Lower values may cause 4DOS to hang during boot, especially if disk swapping is used. If you use QEMM's OPTIMIZE and your AUTOEXEC has 4DOS-specific commands like GLOBAL, IFF, aliases, etc., OPTIMIZE will recognize them based on the 4DOS.CMD file distributed with QEMM 6. Note that in QEMM version 6.00 this file is incomplete in that it does not include the ELSE, ELSEIFF, and ENDIFF commands; you should add these commands to 4DOS.CMD if you use them in your AUTOEXEC file. This error in 4DOS.CMD was corrected in version 6.01 of QEMM. To use 4DOS.CMD it must be renamed to OPTIMIZE.EXC before running OPTIMIZE; see your QEMM documentation for details. OPTIMIZE cannot take account of the fact that 4DOS may be loaded high with UMBLoad = Yes in 4DOS.INI, and therefore may not give the best optimization results when UMBLoad = Yes is used (OPTIMIZE has this problem with all programs which load themselves into UMBs, not just with 4DOS). Some users also report that OPTIMIZE is unstable on their systems when UMBLoad = Yes is used. RBase (MicroRim): [**] When used with 4DOS disk swapping, RBase closes 4DOS's swap file when it exits. This generates "4DOS Unrecoverable error DS" and other similar fatal error messages. You can avoid this problem by changing 4DOS swapping to go to EMS or XMS, or by setting SwapReopen = Yes in 4DOS.INI. Software Carousel (SoftLogic Solutions): 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 25 Please see the general section on multitaskers in chapter 7 of the manual before reading this section. The information below was obtained from tests with Software Carousel version 3, and discussions with SoftLogic technical support. It applies to all versions of Software Carousel. Software Carousel will not work properly with 4DOS loaded as the primary shell. It is designed with the assumption that COMMAND.COM is the system command processor, and contains logic which specifically depends on COMMAND.COM and the way it is written, and which actually modifies the copy of COMMAND.COM in memory. This makes it impossible to write a program which works properly as an alternate command processor loaded underneath (i.e. before) Software Carousel. However, 4DOS can be run without difficulty inside a Software Carousel partition, if the instructions below are followed. When loading 4DOS into a Carousel partition, the best method is to leave the COMSPEC set to COMMAND.COM when Carousel is loaded. 4DOS should then be set up in the Carousel options file just like any other program. For example, to load 4DOS into partition 1: d:\path\4DOS.COM [parameters] [filename] where: d:\path is the drive and path where 4DOS.COM is located [parameters] is any 4DOS command line parameters (/E, @ininame, etc.; do NOT use /P here) [filename] is the name of a batch file to be executed when the partition is started To use different 4DOS.INI files for different Software Carousel partitions, use the "@ininame" parameter in the "parameters" section of your Carousel setup to invoke a specific file. For example, the parameters could be set to @D:\WP\4DOSWP.INI to use that initialization file for the WP partition. Because 4DOS can only be loaded in a partition when running Software Carousel, and not as the primary command processor, using 4DOS disk swapping in multiple partitions is subject to the cautionary note on this subject in the general information section on multitaskers in the manual; please read it carefully. As stated in that note, if you use disk swapping you will probably want to use the UniqueSwapName directive in 4DOS.INI to avoid swap file name conflicts. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 26 TSRCOM Utilities (TurboPower Software): The TSRCOM utilities will work properly with 4DOS as long as you use TSRCOM version 2.6 or later. The current release is version 3.4, and is available on the 4DOS Utility Disk and on many bulletin boards and on-line systems. If you use TSRCOM's MARK and RELEASE to manage your TSRs, 4DOS swapping (as set with the SWAPPING command) must be in the same state when RELEASE is run as it was when MARK (or FMARK) was run. This is a characteristic of the design of MARK and RELEASE (or any other such products), and not a bug. If you do not observe this rule (for example, if you run MARK with SWAPPING OFF in AUTOEXEC and later run RELEASE from the prompt with SWAPPING ON), you may receive unusual error messages or hang your system. The same restriction applies to MARKNET and RELNET. UltraVision (Personics): The DE program distributed with UltraVision is written specifically for COMMAND.COM, and cannot be used to set directory colors with 4DOS. Use 4DOS's built-in directory colorization instead. Windows 3.0 and 3.1 (Microsoft): 4.01 Most information about Windows 3.0 is in chapter 7 of the manual. 4DOS has been tested thoroughly and works well with Windows 3.1; the instructions in the manual on Windows 3.0 also apply to Windows 3.1. (See the section on PATH problems below for one caution related to the Setup Applications program in Windows 3.0.) If you set up a PIF file for a 4DOS window, please note that the 4DOS MEMORY command will report the maximum amount of EMS memory which Windows can theoretically make available in that window. Because Windows provides a virtual memory capability, this number may be much larger than the size of physical RAM. For example, if you set the EMS Limit in your PIF file to -1, Windows will report total EMS memory of 64 MB to 4DOS as this is the theoretical limit on Windows' virtual memory manager. Virtual memory figures which give the appearance of excess memory are a feature of Windows, and not a bug in 4DOS. XyWrite (XyQuest): [**] XyWrite's "shell to DOS" capability shells to COMMAND.COM, even if you have your COMSPEC variable set to 4DOS. The only way we know of to work around the problem is to make a copy of 4DOS.COM 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 27 and call it COMMAND.COM. If you do this, be sure to save the real COMMAND.COM in another directory in case you need it for another purpose. Some users have reported that the same problem occurs with Signature, a newer word processor from XyQuest. Programs Requiring PATH to be Under 128 Characters: The following programs contain bugs which prevent them from working properly if you have a PATH which is over 128 characters long. Since 4DOS allows you to create a PATH up to 255 characters long this can appear to be a conflict between the program involved and 4DOS. If your path is longer than 128 characters, see the section headed "Solving Software Compatibility Problems" in chapter 7 of the manual for information on creating a batch file to reduce the PATH length while one of these programs is running. 4.01 Checkit (Touchstone): [**] Checkit version 3 requires a path length under 128 characters. Computer Select CD-ROM (Ziff-Davis): [**] Computer Select cannot find its help program if your PATH is over 128 characters long. RenderMan (AutoDesk): RenderMan will hang your system if it is started with a PATH longer than 128 characters. VINES Network (Banyan): [**] VINES' installation may not work properly if your PATH is longer than 128 characters. 4.01 Windows 3.0 (Microsoft): The Windows 3 Setup Applications option, which scans your disk drives for applications to be added to Windows program groups, will not work properly if your PATH is more than 128 characters long. This problem is fixed in Windows 3.1. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 28 Software For Use With 4DOS -------------------------- We receive many requests for recommendations on software that works well with 4DOS, or that we have found especially useful. While we can't recommend what will work well on your system or to meet your needs, we can tell you what packages we have used and found valuable. We will confine our comments to our primary area of expertise -- system software -- and avoid discussing applications programs like spreadsheets and word processors. Please note that this is NOT actually a list of what works well with 4DOS -- the answer to that is, almost everything! And remember this is only our opinions -- you need to choose what will work best for you. Memory Managers: We generally use 386MAX and BlueMax (Qualitas) on our own systems because we find it offers some important technical advantages, and takes a conservative approach to memory management. This approach may leave just slightly less memory available on some systems, but in our view this is a small price to pay for the increased reliability provided by more conservative memory management techniques. Many 4DOS users also report excellent results with QEMM (Quarterdeck), and we use it at times as well. We have less experience with other memory managers like Netroom (Helix) and Memory Commander (V Communications), so we can't comment on them. Task Switchers: For switching between applications which run one at a time, the primary products we're aware of are Back & Forth (Progressive Solutions) and Software Carousel (SoftLogic). This category is an exception to our "everything works well with 4DOS" rule: Software Carousel does work with 4DOS, but is designed to depend on COMMAND.COM and requires special care when used with 4DOS (see above for details). Back & Forth works seamlessly with 4DOS, and many 4DOS users are enthusiastic about its features, support, and price. Back & Forth contains a number of features specifically created with 4DOS in mind (for example, it knows that .BTM files are executable like batch files), and JP Software and Progressive Solutions communicate regularly to make sure that 4DOS and Back & Forth continue to work well together. Disk Caches: There are dozens of products available in this category. We use Super PC-Kwik (MultiSoft) and HyperDisk (Hyperware) and have found both to be reliable and to work well with 4DOS. We can't speak from any direct experience about other caching programs. Disk Expanders: We have had excellent results using Stacker (Stac Electronics) to expand disk drive space. We currently run Stacker on both notebook and desktop systems. We sometimes get a little less than Stac's claimed 2:1 disk space savings, but this is a minor point compared to Stacker's reliability, speed, and value. There are other 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 29 products which perform the same function; we have not used or evaluated any of them. Video Utilities: We use UltraVision (Personics) regularly on all of our systems which have VGA video or better, and we use Laptop UltraVision on laptop or notebook systems. UltraVision allows excellent control over all aspects of VGA and EGA video systems including fonts, colors, and screen sizes. It is fully compatible with 4DOS and many 4DOS users have found it to be a valuable tool. We are not aware of any other products which do what UltraVision does. ANSI-UV.SYS which comes with UltraVision is an excellent ANSI driver; we also use ANSI.COM from PC Magazine. Boot Utilities: We can't speak about this issue from any distance because we sell one such utility, BOOT.SYS, and use it on all our systems. BOOT.SYS was the first of these utilities to allow selection of a configuration during the boot process, and is an excellent tool for configuration management. There are other products in this category but we are not familiar with them. 4DOS 4.01 [6-8-92] APPNOTES.DOC page 30