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4DOS Compatibility Documentation Version 3.03, 4/12/91 Copyright 1988 - 1991, 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 compatibility between 4DOS and 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 compatibili- ty problems with it! It only indicates that we have some information that may be useful to you when you use the product with 4DOS. Sections added or significantly changed in version 3.03 of 4DOS are identified with "3.03" in the left margin. If this mark appears on the first paragraph of a section, assume the whole section has been changed. Otherwise the mark applies only to the paragraph it's next to. This file is formatted at 58 lines per page, and contains form feeds and page footers. It can be viewed with a file viewer such as the 4DOS LIST command, or printed on most PC printers using the command: copy compat.doc prn Printing it with a program that formats the pages is not likely to work due to the formatting included in the file. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 1 Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Causes of Compatibility Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Multi-Way Software Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Running 4DOS along with COMMAND.COM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Executing DOS Commands via Interrupt 2E . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4DOS and Multitasking / Task Switching Programs . . . . . . . . 8 CAUTION: Multitaskers and Disk Swapping . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Swapping to RAM Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Loading 4DOS High with /U or /E:nnnnU . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4DOS SWAPPING OFF Command and 286/386 Memory Managers . . . . . 10 Running 4DOS on a Laptop or Notebook Computer . . . . . . . . . 11 4DOS and Command Line Editing Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4DOS and TSR (Memory-Resident) Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Information on Specific Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 MS-DOS APPEND Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 MS-DOS DATE and TIME Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 MS-DOS FASTOPEN Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 MS-DOS 4.0+ FORMAT Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 MS-DOS 4.0+ SELECT Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 1DIR+ (Bourbaki) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 3+Open Network (3COM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 ANSI.SYS (various manufacturers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 DESQView (Quarterdeck) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 DESQView DOS Services (Quarterdeck) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 DoubleDOS (SoftLogic Solutions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 DR-DOS (Digital Research) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Epsilon (Lugaru Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 GeoWorks Ensemble (GEOS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Headroom (Helix Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Hijaak (Inset Systems) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 HIMEM.SYS (Microsoft) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 LOGIMENU (Logitech) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 MOVE-EM (Qualitas) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 MTEZ Fax Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Netware (Novell) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Novell MENU (Novell) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 OmniMouse Software Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 PC Tools (Central Point Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 QEMM and QRAM (Quarterdeck) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 QuickCache II (Glassel and Associates) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 SideKick 2.0 (Borland) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 SigmaPlot (Sigma Designs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Software Carousel (SoftLogic Solutions) . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Telix Communications Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Timeline (Symantec) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 TSRCOM Utilities (TurboPower Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 UltraVision (Personics) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Ventura Publisher (Xerox) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 2 VTSR (Golden Bow Systems) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Windows 3.0 (Microsoft) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 WordPerfect 5.1 (WordPerfect Corp.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 3 Introduction ------------ We have made every effort to insure that this file is as accurate and up to date as possible. Our information is based on our own investiga- tions, technical support calls, conversations with manufacturers of other products, and reports from our beta testers and other customers. Unfortunately, testing for software compatibility is not always reli- able. 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 sys- tems 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. In some cases we may have found that upgrading another manufacturer's software to a newer release helps with a particular problem. Unfortu- nately we cannot guarantee that it will always do so on your system, for the reasons described above. If you have a compatibility problem, the first thing you should do is read through Appendix E of the 4DOS manual ("Troubleshooting and Tips"). Appendix E gives general suggestions for solving compatibility problems, and should always be used along with this file when attempting to solve such a problem. If the information in Appendix E doesn't help, check below for both general suggestions which pertain to your problem, and information on the specific product with which you are having trouble. 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. Most compatibility problems with 4DOS can be diagnosed easily with one of three methods: checking this file for specific information; trying different 4DOS swapping methods (XMS, EMS, disk, or none); and testing for interactions by removing all drivers and TSRs which are not abso- lutely necessary and then replacing them one at a time, as described in Appendix E (page 159). These techniques may not tell you how to solve the problem, but they will go a long way toward identifying the cause. Of course, if you cannot diagnose or resolve a compatibility problem, please contact JP Software for technical support. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 4 General Information ------------------- This section describes some techniques you can use to either diagnose or solve compatibility problems. It also includes general information which may be used in solving problems with a whole group of products (e.g., multitaskers). Causes of Compatibility Problems: In most cases software which does not to run properly under 4DOS is experiencing one of the following problems: * 4DOS is not configured properly; * The other software is not configured properly; * Some condition in your system (for example, insufficient memory) is preventing the other software from running at all, but you are so used to 4DOS that you haven't noticed that the same problem occurs under COMMAND.COM, i.e. the problem is not related to 4DOS; * There is a multi-way interaction between 4DOS, the other software, and one or more of your TSRs or device drivers; * The presence of 4DOS in your system has uncovered a bug or design problem in the other software that did not appear when running it under COMMAND.COM, but that is not due to a malfunction or error in 4DOS. * The other software was written based on specific characteristics of COMMAND.COM, and cannot run under 4DOS unless COMMAND.COM is also loaded. * The other software was written based on specific characteristics of COMMAND.COM, and cannot run under 4DOS at all. Multi-Way Software Interactions: In many cases programs which appear to fail under 4DOS, yet run properly under COMMAND.COM, are actually involved in a 3-way interaction with one of your TSRs or device drivers. If you are having trouble with a program, try removing then replacing your TSRs and device drivers as described in Appendix E of the 4DOS manual (page 159), and see if you can determine whether there is such an interaction occurring. Running 4DOS along with COMMAND.COM: You may find a 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 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 5 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 pro- gram. 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 prob- lems such as "Invalid COMMAND.COM" errors when using this method, use a batch file like the following to run the program in ques- tion (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 neces- sary, and will use about 4 - 5K of additional RAM for the resi- dent portion of COMMAND.COM. The following steps will set your system up to boot with COMMAND.COM, and run 4DOS automatically as part of the boot pro- cess: (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) Be sure the statement: DEVICE=KEYSTACK.SYS 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 6 is included in CONFIG.SYS if you wish to use the 4DOS KEYSTACK command. (3) 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 con- tain the commands you wish to have 4DOS execute when it is started. (4) 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! 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 not "%@eval[2+2]"=="4" quit This line tests the 4DOS variable function %@EVAL, which will return "4" under 4DOS and remain on the line unchanged under COMMAND.COM. If %@EVAL does not return a "4" the statement QUITs the batch file, preventing the infinite loop described above. Executing DOS Commands via Interrupt 2E: COMMAND.COM contains an undocumented (and unsupported) feature which allows programs to execute DOS commands by passing the command through software interrupt number 2E (hex). Very few programs use this feature, and the current release of 4DOS does not support it internally. However the SHELL2E TSR included with 4DOS will allow you to run most programs that use INT 2E. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 7 If you have a program which is supposed to execute DOS commands and it does not work under 4DOS, first read the Troubleshooting appendix in the manual, especially page 160, and check over your settings of COMSPEC and 4DSHELL. If these appear correct, your program may be trying to use INT 2E to execute commands. If you believe this is the case, try loading the SHELL2E program which came with your copy of 4DOS. Documentation on SHELL2E is in the file SHELL2E.DOC. If you aren't sure whether your program is using INT 2E, SHELL2E's /W switch can help you find out -- see SHELL2E.DOC for the details. See below for specific information on Novell's MENU program, which requires SHELL2E. 4DOS and Multitasking / Task Switching Programs: (For convenience below we will refer to all these programs as "multitasking", even though some are only task switching pro- grams, and to all windows or partitions they use as "windows", even though some systems do not support windowing). 4DOS can be used with most multitasking systems including Win- dows, DESQView, Back and Forth, OmniView, Software Carousel, and VM/386. See the sections on specific products below for informa- tion on the individual products. If you require task switching (switching between multiple pro- grams) without multi-tasking (multiple programs actually execut- ing concurrently), we particularly recommend that you try the shareware task switcher Back & Forth, from Progressive Solutions. Back & Forth is fully compatible with 4DOS by design, runs effi- ciently using small amounts of memory, and provides a wide range of configuration options and compatibility. It is available from most common sources of shareware (disk vendors, CompuServe, Ge- nie, bulletin boards, etc.). Unless otherwise noted below, 4DOS should work properly both as the root shell loaded before the multitasking system, or when run inside a window. 3.03 To start 4DOS inside a window in any of these systems you can define it as a program to be run directly, or you can have the multitasker load it automatically as the command processor, by leaving COMSPEC set to 4DOS. Most multitaskers will load 4DOS automatically to run other programs, and you probably don't need to intervene in this process -- the multitasking system can gen- erally do so implicitly with no trouble. However when you want a window that will give you access to the 4DOS prompt, things usu- ally work best if you set the window up to run 4DOS.COM explic- itly, rather than using the multitasker's generic "DOS" window setup. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 8 3.03 Regardless of the approach used, you can use the 4DSHELL environ- ment variable to set the 4DOS command line parameters (such as swapping method and environment size) to be used when starting 4DOS in a window. If 4DOS is defined as a program to be run di- rectly you can also set these parameters on the command line. Under most multitasking systems the COMSPEC setting will control whether 4DOS or COMMAND.COM is used to run batch files and to open windows that are NOT closed on exit to DOS. In most cases you will find it works best to leave the COMSPEC set to 4DOS. CAUTION: Multitaskers and Disk Swapping: When 4DOS is swapping to disk in multiple windows of a multi- tasking system, it must be configured properly to avoid conflicts among the swap file names used in each window. When loaded normally, the primary copy of 4DOS will act as a "traffic cop" for the copies of 4DOS in the different windows, assigning each one a unique "shell number" which is used as the extension for the disk swap file (4DOSSWAP.001, 4DOSSWAP.002, etc.). In this case no conflict will occur. However, if 4DOS is NOT loaded before the multitasking program this capability will not be available. In this case the copy of 4DOS in each window will use the swap file name 4DOSSWAP.000. To avoid a filename conflict every copy of 4DOS started in disk swapping mode MUST place its swap file in its own unique direc- tory specified with the "/S:Dd:\path" switch. If this rule is not observed the system will hang when switching windows or upon exit from an application. In 4DOS 3.01 and later, disk swap files default to the root di- rectory of the drive COMSPEC points to; hence to make 4DOS disk swapping work properly you must EXPLICITLY use /S:D to place the swap files in separate directories. This problem will only occur if 4DOS is NOT the primary shell, AND disk swapping is used in more than one window as described above. There is no such conflict with EMS or XMS swapping. Note that since the default /S:B swapping option uses disk swapping if no EMS or XMS memory is available, you can be invoking disk swap- ping your multitasker windows even if you haven't explicitly requested it. 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 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 9 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. Loading 4DOS High with /U or /E:nnnnU: 3.03 To load 4DOS or the master environment into high memory with the /U or /E:nnnnU switches, you MUST be running a memory manager or a combination of a memory manager and XMS driver which provides BOTH the ability to remap memory into the area between 640K and 1MB, AND software support for the eXtended Memory Specification (XMS). Another way of saying this that, in general, /U and /E:nnnnU will work on any system which can load TSRs high. The combinations of hardware and software which will support /U and /E:nnnnU include: 386 systems: Hardware: Sufficient memory space; no additional hardware required. Software: Qualitas's 386MAX or Blue Max, Quarterdeck's QEMM version 5.0 or later, or another similar 386 memory manager (HIMEM.SYS alone is NOT sufficient). 286 systems: Hardware: Chips and Technologies NEAT chip set, or EMS board with LIM 4.0 or EEMS hardware; sufficient memory space. Software: Qualitas's MOVE-EM version 1.02 or later with Microsoft's HIMEM.SYS, or Quarterdeck's QRAM and QEXT. Other memory-management software may also work; the listings above are examples only. Also, look for specific information on your memory management program below. The following software will NOT allow /U or /E:nnnnU to work: HIMEM.SYS by itself; QRAM without QEXT; or MOVE-EM without HIMEM.SYS. Also these switches will not work on systems with expanded memory boards with LIM 3.2 hardware (regardless of the software used); if you are trying to load 4DOS (or TSRs) high using an expanded memory board you need hardware which supports either LIM 4.0 EMS, or the similar EEMS. Check with your system or board manufacturer to determine whether your board supports LIM 4.0 or EEMS. 4DOS SWAPPING OFF Command and 286/386 Memory Managers: 3.03 When you use the 4DOS SWAPPING OFF command to speed up your batch files, especially AUTOEXEC.BAT, you can generate occasional con- flicts with some 386 memory management software when loading TSRs 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 10 "high" (above 640K). The conflicts usually appear as "Memory allocation chain" errors (or another similar message) during the load high process. If these occur, try leaving leave SWAPPING ON when loading TSRs high and see if it solves the problem. If not, the problem lies elsewhere. Running 4DOS on a Laptop or Notebook Computer: 3.03 When you run 4DOS on a laptop or notebook system, you may need to consider any unusual boot sequence used on your system when you install 4DOS or modify CONFIG.SYS. Many laptop and notebook computers boot from a floppy drive or hard disk, and on these system 4DOS generally can be installed normally. However, if your system boots from ROM (ROM = "Read Only Memory" chips inside your computer) as -- for example -- many Tandy laptops do, then you need to consider a couple of issues. First, systems which boot from ROM often can be configured to use the ROM boot feature, or to disable it and boot from the floppy or hard disk. The comments below apply only when the ROM boot feature is enabled. With ROM boot enabled, your system will read DOS and CONFIG.SYS from ROM when the power is turned on. Since the manufacturer wrote that CONFIG.SYS file, and it can't be changed (it's in ROM), it's likely to work. Where things get interesting is when your system allows you to boot from ROM, but locate your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files on the hard disk or floppy disk. Some laptops and notebook sys- tems do have this capability. Then, when you make a mistake in CONFIG.SYS that keeps your system from booting, there's no way to tell the ROM boot program to ignore the bad CONFIG.SYS file. As a result, you may have to take drastic measures (for example, open the case and physically disconnect the hard disk) to get the system to ignore your mistaken CONFIG.SYS file and boot properly. For this reason, we recommend that if you have a system which boots from ROM, and you have the system configured to read CONFIG.SYS from the hard disk, that you reconfigure the system to boot directly from disk before modifying CONFIG.SYS for any rea- son (4DOS-related or not). This will allow you to boot from a floppy disk if you make a fatal error in the copy of CONFIG.SYS on your hard disk. Once you have things working properly, switch back to the ROM boot setup. The second -- and related -- issue is that systems which boot from ROM typically consider the ROM to be a sort of disk "drive". For example, on a system with drive C: as the hard disk, drive D: may be the ROM. When booting from ROM, the ROM drive is typical- ly the "current drive" at boot time, and that's where 4DOS will look for the 4START and AUTOEXEC files. But of course they won't be on the ROM drive -- they'll be where you put them, on your hard disk or floppy disk. When this happens 4DOS won't execute 4START or AUTOEXEC at system boot. (This doesn't happen with 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 11 COMMAND.COM because manufacturers of such systems modify COMMAND.COM specifically to get around this difficulty). If you run into this problem, first be sure you've got a /P on your SHELL= line -- if you don't that will also keep 4DOS from running AUTOEXEC. If that's OK, you probably need to use a 4DOS feature that allows you to put your own command at the end of the SHELL= line in CONFIG.SYS. Just create a batch file that runs 4START (if you're using it) and AUTOEXEC with their full paths, for example: 4DINIT.BAT: call c:\4start.btm call c:\autoexec.bat Then, on your SHELL= line in CONFIG.SYS, add the full name of this file at the end of the line, for example: shell=c:\4dos.com /p c:\4dinit.bat (use care that you don't exceed the line length limit discussed on page 19 of the 4DOS manual; if you do, create an options file as discussed on page 21 of the file and place the 4DOS options -- including the batch file name -- in that file). This will tell 4DOS to run your startup files "manually", since they won't be run automatically. If you have a system like this 4DOS will probably set the COMSPEC to the ROM drive, and you'll have to correct this in AUTOEXEC to point to the hard disk or floppy disk. For example: set comspec=c:\4dos.com See the section on COMSPEC in the manual for more information. Finally, if you have a laptop with a color (CGA, EGA, or VGA) video board and a monochrome screen, you may need to use the HELP /BW option, or run HELPCFG to adjust the HELP colors. See the end of the UPDATE30.DOC file for a complete discussion of these items. In extreme cases where the HELPCFG screens cannot be read you may need to run HELPCFG on a color system, set the colors to black and white, then move the newly configured copy of HELP.EXE to your laptop. In setting up your laptop or notebook to meet our recommenda- tions, of course you must read the instructions that came with it, and contact the manufacturer if you have trouble. These systems are relatively new and the approach taken by each manu- facturer is unique; the proper way to modify your system configu- ration will depend on the particular system you have. That said, of course we'll be glad to help out if you have trouble -- just give our technical support department a call. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 12 4DOS and Command Line Editing Programs: Programs such as Anarkey (Moderne Software), PCED (Cove Soft- ware), and ReDOS (Multisoft) will work properly with 4DOS. How- ever these programs require the use of SETDOS /L1 to operate, which will disable 4DOS's command recall and command line edit- ing. 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. When another editor is used 4DOS's command history will be main- tained, and can be viewed with HISTORY, but will not be available for recall until a SETDOS /L0 is executed. 4DOS aliases, execut- able extensions, and other features will be active regardless of the SETDOS /L state. Aliases will be processed after any pro- cessing 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 TSR (Memory-Resident) Programs: In 4DOS version 3.0 and above many memory-resident programs should be able to unload themselves, even if they could not do so under earlier versions of 4DOS. You may still experience unload problems if you have a complex system or many TSRs loaded; if you do, use MARK and RELEASE from the TSRCOM utilities, available on many bulletin boards and on the 4DOS Utility Disk. These prod- ucts will allow you to unload virtually all TSRs without diffi- culty. See more specific information on TSRCOM below. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 13 Information on Specific Products -------------------------------- The information below is listed alphabetically by product, with manufac- turers' names included. MS-DOS commands are listed before other soft- ware products. Items marked with two asterisks [**] after the product name were sup- plied 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. Subsequent uses of APPEND to adjust the APPEND path use the internal portion built into COMMAND.COM. 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 be started in the usual way, from AUTOEXEC or any other batch file, or from the command line. However to change the APPEND path you must run APPEND from COMMAND.COM, not from 4DOS. To do this, enter the following command (modify the com- mand 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 dangerous: if you APPEND a directory and then (say) delete all the .BAK files, the .BAK files in the APPENDed directory will be deleted too. The APPEND /E switch will not work with 4DOS. CAUTION: In our opinion APPEND is an extremely dangerous com- mand. 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 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 14 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 run- ning 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 de- scription files from getting mixed up between directories. For this reason 4DOS version 3.02 and above 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: Versions of DOS distributed by some manufacturers will automa- tically 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. This is a hardware-specific feature which may not function as you expect under 4DOS. If you normally set the hardware clock's date and time with DOS commands, either run a secondary copy of COMMAND.COM to set them, or invoke your system's SETUP or other utility program to do so. MS-DOS FASTOPEN Command: 3.03 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 bug in FAST- OPEN, not a problem 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. The only solution we are aware of in this situation is to reboot your system. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 15 Our feeling is that, if you have the memory to support it, a disk caching program will provide a much larger and more effective performance improvement than FASTOPEN. MS-DOS 4.0+ FORMAT Command: When formatting a bootable disk with FORMAT /S, the FORMAT com- mand in MS-DOS 4.0 and above will copy whatever file your COMSPEC environment variable points to to the target disk and renaming it COMMAND.COM. When 4DOS is running COMSPEC normally points to 4DOS.COM, so FORMAT will copy 4DOS.COM to the floppy disk and rename it COMMAND.COM. This will render the floppy disk NOT bootable -- 4DOS won't mind the file name change, but 4DOS.COM alone is not enough for 4DOS to get started; one of the 4DOS EXE files is also required. To solve this problem, after formatting a bootable floppy disk under MS-DOS 4.0 we recommend that you copy COMMAND.COM to the disk manually. You may want to set up a simple alias or batch file for this purpose, for example: alias bootdisk `format a:/s^copy c:\command.com a:` Alternatively, you can copy the 4DOS88 or 4DOS286 EXE file to the root directory of the floppy disk, which will make the disk boot under 4DOS instead of COMMAND.COM. However we do not recommend this method unless you also rename the "COMMAND.COM" file back to 4DOS.COM and place a proper CONFIG.SYS file on the floppy disk to load 4DOS.COM. Leaving a copy of 4DOS.COM on the disk with the name COMMAND.COM is bound to confuse the next person who examines it! 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 fol- lowing 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): 3.03 The information below was obtained from tests with 1DIR+ version 3.02, and verified with version 3.5 as well. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 16 1DIR+ will work properly under 4DOS version 3 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. 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 (F8 then F2) 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" (F8 then F8). 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 3+Open Network (3COM): [**] Previous problems with 3+Open's LOGON have been resolved. If your system hangs when loading 3+Open's NBP program, upgrading to the latest release of NBP should resolve the problem. Please note that 3COM issues multiple releases with the same version number; the fact that you have "version 1.1" does not necessarily mean you have the latest release. Check with your 3COM support representative to be sure you have the latest release. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 17 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 use PC Magazine's free utility ANSI.COM); for more information see page 156 of the 4DOS manual. DESQView (Quarterdeck): Please see the section on multitaskers under General Information above before reading this section. 3.03 The information below was obtained from tests with DESQView ver- sion 2.26 and 2.3. To use 4DOS with DESQview, you must add it to your DESQview Open Window menu. To do this, select the Add a Program option, then press the "O" key (for Other Program). Press Enter and you will get a standard Change a Program window. You must set the program parameters and startup directory before opening a 4DOS window. Set the Program Name to d:\path\4DOS.COM where "d:\path" is the drive and directory where 4DOS.COM is stored. Set the Parameters to whatever 4DOS startup options you want (swapping type, environment size, etc.; do NOT use /C or /P). For other DESQView parameters, the defaults are workable except for the following changes: Writes Text Directly to Screen Y (screen 1) Close on Exit to DOS Y (screen 2) Uses its Own Colors Y (screen 2) These parameters assume that you are running 4DOS in a full- screen window; if so the window dimensions on screen 2 must be set accordingly. You may wish to run 4DOS in a window smaller than the full screen. If so set the window dimensions accordingly, and change the "Writes Text Directly to Screen" field to "N". 4DOS is writ- ten to be "Desqview-aware", and will not "bleed through" when running full-screen commands (DRAWBOX, DRAWHLINE, DRAWVLINE, LIST, SCRPUT, and SELECT) in such a window. We have found that the only ANSI driver which works properly in a window smaller than the full screen is Quarterdeck's DVANSI.COM. If you need to load DVANSI.COM, you can do so from a window startup batch file as described in the next paragraph. As of version 3.01 the 4DOS HELP command has been modified to be DESQView-aware, and should also work properly in a window smaller than the full screen. You can set up a startup batch file to be run when a DESQView window is opened -- just create it, and place its name (with drive and path if necessary) as the last thing on the Parameters 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 18 line. This batch file will be run after and independently of any 4START.BAT or 4START.BTM file. 3.03 When closing a DESQView window which has loaded a copy of 4DOS, you should exit the application (if you're at the 4DOS prompt, use the EXIT command) rather than just closing the window with DESQView's Close Window command. The Close Window command simply removes 4DOS from memory, and gives no opportunity for 4DOS to free up its resources such as the shell number, swap file, and any reserved EMS or XMS blocks. As a result, you can gradually use up some of these resources if you repeatedly open such win- dows and then close them with the Close Window command. DESQView will work properly with the 4DOS /U and /E:nnnnU options in the primary shell, but may not work properly if these options are set in 4DSHELL and/or used explicitly in a DESQView window. The 4DOS /E:nnnnS (swapped environment) option is incompatible with DESQView. DESQView DOS Services (Quarterdeck): 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 assum- ing 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 = 100K 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 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. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 19 DoubleDOS (SoftLogic Solutions): See Software Carousel. DR-DOS (Digital Research): [**] 3.03 4DOS will work properly as a command processor (including as the primary shell) under DR-DOS 3.x or 5.0. DR-DOS's design makes the ASSIGN, JOIN, and SUBST commands inter- nal (in MS-DOS / PC-DOS they are external). To access these commands when using 4DOS as the command processor, you must set up aliases which run DR-DOS's COMMAND.COM to invoke the commands. 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 subst `c:\command /c subst %&` 3.03 Earlier problems using 4DOS's KEYSTACK command under DR-DOS 5.0 have been resolved. 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 re- quests 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. To use the more flexible SETDOS /L1 approach you must use 4START.BAT (or .BTM) to set up the SETDOS /L1 before running Epsilon. To do so, first set up an alias for Epsilon that sets an environment variable (change the name of the variable if you wish): alias eps `set epsi=YES^epsilon %&^unset epsi` Then placing the following line in 4START will issue the SETDOS /L1 command in a secondary shell started by Epsilon, but ignore it otherwise: if "%epsi"=="YES" setdos /l1 GeoWorks Ensemble (GEOS): 3.03 4DOS is generally entirely 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 parame- 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 20 ters". Commands can be entered the same as on the DOS command line. A longer file of user-written tips for using 4DOS with GeoWorks is available in JP Software's CompuServe support area (PCVENB library 10) as GEOTIP.ZIP. This file includes informa- tion on using the undocumented GeoWorks "dosAssociations" and "dosParameters" directives to create an even smoother interface between GeoWorks and 4DOS. Headroom (Helix Software): [**] 4DOS and Headroom have been tested by both JP Software and Helix Software and should work properly together. Headroom will NOT work correctly if the COMSPEC is not set properly, so if you do have trouble check your COMSPEC (see pages 15 - 16 of the manu- al). There is a problem running 4DOS's HELP with a mouse when Headroom is loaded. If you have trouble with this please contact Helix Software technical support; a fix was incorporated into Headroom version 2.03. 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; we are working with Inset Systems to address the problem. 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. HIMEM.SYS (Microsoft): 4DOS's XMS swapping will work properly with HIMEM.SYS, but HIMEM.SYS alone does NOT support the memory mapping required to use the 4DOS /U and /E:nnnnU options. See the general section on /U and /E:nnnnU above for more information. LOGIMENU (Logitech): [**] 3.03 If Logitech's LOGIMENU is loaded from a hard disk when running with 4DOS, it leaves a file open each time a menu is unloaded. To work around this problem, load the menu from a floppy disk or RAM disk. MOVE-EM (Qualitas): [**] MOVE-EM version 1.00 contains a bug which causes the system to crash whenever any program attempts to access XMS memory. 4DOS 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 21 will attempt to access XMS memory if you specify the /U or /E:nnnnU option, or use the MEMORY command, so these 4DOS fea- tures cannot be used if MOVE-EM 1.00 is installed. MOVE-EM version 1.02 corrects the above bug, but is only compat- ible with 4DOS's /U and /E:nnnnU options if Microsoft's HIMEM.SYS is also loaded in your system. MOVE-EM itself does not fully support the XMS specification which permits 4DOS to load itself and the master environment in high memory. See the general sec- tion on /U and /E:nnnnU above for more information. MTEZ Fax Software: [**] 3.03 When this software is loaded it leaves a "hole" in memory which can cause "Out of memory" errors when 4DOS's DIR command is used on directories with more than 128 files. The manufacturer is working on reducing or eliminating this "hole" in order to re- solve the problem. Netware (Novell): [**] The information below was obtained from tests with Netware ver- sions 2.12 and 2.15 and Netware 386, and from discussions with Novell support personnel. 3.03 On some Netware systems you may experience problems when redirec- ting output to network disk drives (eg DIR > J:DIRLIST). The problems occur because Netware has a tendency to close files which are still in use by 4DOS, despite the considerable extent to which 4DOS has been modified to meet Novell's requirements to avoid this problem. The problem does not occur on most networks. If you do experience it, the only solution we are currently aware of is to place the following line in your Netware SHELL.CFG file: TaskMode=4 This will disable Netware's "task cleanup" facility, which is the part of Netware that is closing files and causing the problem. Most 4DOS users who have use this option have reported success in solving their redirection problems without side effects. Howev- er, be aware that if this option is used some poorly behaved applications which do not properly close their files will no longer have Netware to clean up after them. This may lead to files being left open when such applications exit, and the next time the files are used sharing violations may then occur. A system reboot will clean up any such problem. Please contact JP Software technical support if you are unable to resolve problems with redirection on Netware drives. When Netware's LOGIN and/or MAP commands are used to map network drives into the path, the local path will be lost if it is not stored in upper case. Earlier versions of 4DOS stored the path 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 22 in whatever case it was entered in; beginning with version 3.0 the PATH command always shifts its input to upper case to get around this problem. However if you use SET to modify the path you can still manage to include lower case characters, and there- by exercise this Netware bug. Novell has informed us that they intend to fix this problem in an upcoming release. In the mean- time, keep your PATH environment variable entirely in upper case to avoid the problem. 3.03 Netware also has a bug which can cause it to lose one or more characters from the name of an environment variable (usually the second or third one in the environment) when setting other envi- ronment variables from inside a LOGIN script. If you are setting environment variables such as COMSPEC within your LOGIN script, you can get around this problem by using a batch file to set the variables after LOGIN is complete. Even if you cannot control the LOGIN script, you can still use a batch file to reset the "damaged" variables after LOGIN has finished. One user has suc- cessfully worked around this problem by installing several "dum- my" variables at the very beginning of AUTOEXEC, for example: set a=a set aa=aa set aaa=aaa When these are installed it is the "dummy" variables which are damaged rather than the meaningful variables (PATH, PROMPT, etc.) which are defined later. It is not currently possible to do disk swapping to a network drive under Netware. This is because Netware closes all files -- including the 4DOS swap file -- each time an application exits. The next time 4DOS uses the swap file, a swap file seek error will occur. We are considering possible internal workarounds for this problem; for now the available methods are to swap to EMS, XMS, or a local hard disk or RAM disk. Use caution with the 4DOS UNSET command under Netware. When Net- ware 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 4DOS /U command line option is reported to be compatible with Netware, but the /E:nnnnU and /E:nnnnS options are not. Novell MENU (Novell): The Novell MENU system distributed with Netware uses Interrupt 2E to execute menu options, and therefore requires the use of the SHELL2E program to work properly. SHELL2E is included with 4DOS; see the general section above on INT 2E and the SHELL2E documen- tation in SHELL2E.DOC for more information. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 23 When using MENU with SHELL2E, remember that a secondary 4DOS shell will be started to execute each command in the menu file. This can be quite slow if you execute many commands for each menu option, and it won't work if you use SET commands whose results are used later in the command sequence. However if you put the commands in a batch file and put the name of the batch file as the command to be executed for each menu option then there should be no performance problems, and the results of SET commands will be available to commands that occur later in the batch file. OmniMouse Software Drivers: [**] The OmniMouse TSR driver, MSCMOUSE.COM, works correctly with 4DOS. The CONFIG.SYS driver, MSCMOUSE.SYS, may not. If you have trouble with MSCMOUSE.SYS use MSCMOUSE.COM instead. PC Tools (Central Point Software): The information below was obtained from tests with PC Tools ver- sion 5.5 and 6.0, and from user reports. Most elements of this popular package work properly with 4DOS. We have had some problems reported but in all cases investigation has shown that the problems occurred under COMMAND.COM as well (though not always with the same exact symptoms). PC Tools' PCSHELL 5.5 will refuse to launch applications from the 4DOS prompt, giving an error indicating that you are not at the prompt. This problem is due to the design of PCSHELL, and occurs with all command line editing programs. The problem has been addressed in PC Tools 6.0. It can be solved in PC Tools 5.5 by loading PCSHELL with Innovative Data Concepts' shareware product SWAPSH, available from IDC (215-443-9705) and on many bulletin boards and on-line systems. SWAPSH will reduce PCSHELL's resi- dent memory requirements as well. We have had one report that PC Tools' MIRROR program will not run properly from AUTOEXEC.BAT under 4DOS if SWAPPING OFF is in ef- fect. If you experience this problem, be sure SWAPPING is ON before running MIRROR. QEMM and QRAM (Quarterdeck): The information below was obtained from tests with QEMM versions 4 and 5, and user reports on QRAM. Both QEMM 5.0 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 /U and /E:nnnnU switches respectively. For /U and /E:nnnnU to work with QRAM you must 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 24 have QEXT loaded also (this is the normal method of loading QRAM). See general information on these switches above as well. QEMM version 5 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 5. 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 not rec- ognize them as DOS commands. Instead, it will act as if these commands are actually programs being invoked and attempt to see whether they should be loaded high. This can confuse OPTIMIZE and make it either fail, or run much too long. To address this, run OPTIMIZE with the switch /LOADHIONLY and then place a LOADHI command before each entry in AUTOEXEC that you actually want OPTIMIZE to examine. QuickCache II (Glassel and Associates): [**] 3.03 QCACHE is compatible with 4DOS only if its "Use low memory" op- tion is enabled. If this option is disabled (the QCACHE default) your system is almost certain to hang when QCACHE is loaded and 4DOS is running in swapping mode, as QCACHE will place its cache buffers in the same area of memory used by 4DOS's transient por- tion. SideKick 2.0 (Borland): 3.03 If you use 4DOS disk swapping with the initial release of Side- Kick 2.0 you may receive swap file seek errors when unloading SideKick from memory. This is because on unload Sidekick errone- ously closes some files which do not belong to it, including the 4DOS swap file. This is a bug in SideKick which is being ad- dressed by Borland. In the meantime, you can unload SideKick with no trouble using MARK and RELEASE from the TSRCOM utilities, available on many bulletin boards and on the 4DOS Utility Disk. SideKick 2.0 can also cause 4DOS to hang if it is popped up over a secondary 4DOS shell (for example, when shelled out of your word processor or communications program). The problem only occurs when popping SideKick up in a secondary shell with a rela- tively small amount of memory available. We are working with 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 25 Borland to determine the cause of this problem and resolve it. To work around the problem, run a small application program and pop SideKick up over that program, or return to the original application from which you shelled to DOS and pop SideKick up there. SigmaPlot (Sigma Designs): [**] 3.03 The batch file PLOT.BAT used to start SigmaPlot uses an outdated method of determining DOS version which will fail under 4DOS, reporting that "SigmaPlot requires DOS 2.0 or later". You can fix this batch file easily. At the beginning of the file, look for the group of lines which reads: dosver for %%v in (1,2,3,4) do if errorlevel %%v goto DosVer%%v echo Error! Can't determine DOS version. Replace these three lines with the following single line: goto DosVerX where "X" is the version of DOS you are running (i.e. DosVer3, DosVer4, etc.). Software Carousel (SoftLogic Solutions): Please see the section on multitaskers under General Information above before reading this section. 3.03 The information below was obtained from tests with Software Car- ousel version 3, and discussions with SoftLogic technical sup- port. It is reported to apply to all versions of Software Carou- sel through 5.0. Neither Software Carousel nor DoubleDOS will work properly with 4DOS loaded as the primary shell. Both programs are written with the assumption that COMMAND.COM is the system command processor, and both contain 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) these products. However, 4DOS can be run without difficulty inside a Software Carousel partition, and should work properly as a program to be run under DoubleDOS. 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: 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 26 d:\path\4DOS.COM [parameters] [filename] where: d:\path is the drive and path where 4DOS.COM is lo- cated [parameters] is the 4DOS command line parameters (/S, /E, etc.; do NOT use /P here) [filename] is the name of a batch file to be executed when the partition is started Because 4DOS can only be loaded in a partition when running Soft- ware Carousel, and not as the primary command processor, using 4DOS disk swapping in multiple partitions is subject to the cau- tionary note on this subject in the general information section on multitaskers; please read it carefully. Telix Communications Software: Telix will work properly with 4DOS. However because Telix uses all available EMS memory, this memory will not be available for 4DOS swapping when you shell to DOS from Telix. As a result, if you have set 4DOS up to swap secondary shells to EMS (e.g. with SET 4DSHELL=/S:E) then EMS swapping in a secondary shell from Telix will fail, and 4DOS will load resident. If you allow 4DOS to determine the swapping method itself for secondary shells, then it will swap to disk (unless XMS is available). This isn't a problem -- it's just different from what you may see if you shell to DOS from other programs that don't take all available EMS. Timeline (Symantec): [**] 3.03 Timeline's use of XMS memory may overwrite any 4DOS swap area which is also in XMS memory and cause your system to hang. To work around this problem use 4DOS's EMS or disk swapping, or add the command line parameter "ADDIN IS -XMS" to your TimeLine com- mand line. TSRCOM Utilities (TurboPower Software): TSRCOM will work properly with 4DOS as long as you use TSRCOM version 2.6 or later. The current release is version 2.9, 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. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 27 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 gmay receive unusual error messages or hang your system. UltraVision (Personics): [**] When using 4DOS and Personics' UltraVision 2.0, you may need to have a 4START.BAT (or .BTM) that contains a SETDOS /S command to set the cursor shape, or your cursor may disappear. The proper cursor start and end values depend to some extent on the UV line size, but all values less than 14 appear to work in all UV line sizes. The DE program distributed with UltraVision is written specifi- cally for COMMAND.COM, and cannot currently be used to set direc- tory colors with 4DOS. If you load UltraVision inside a Microsoft Windows 3.0 window which was started with 4DOS, and don't unload it before EXITing, then when you do EXIT Windows will display a message that a pop- up program has been activated. Type Ctrl-C when this message appears to close the window and return to Windows. Ventura Publisher (Xerox): [**] 3.03 Ventura Publisher 2.0 may issue an Error 0019 if there is more than about 180 bytes of space in use in your environment (use the MEMORY command to determine the amount of environment space in use). This is a bug in Ventura Publisher, and not a problem in 4DOS; we understand from one user that the bug has been fixed in Ventura 3.0. For Ventura 2.0 you may need to use a batch file which removes some of your environment variables to make the environment small enough. For example, the following batch file uses SETLOCAL to preserve the current environment, removes some variables, runs Ventura, and then restores the environment with ENDLOCAL: setlocal unset bpath bflags bpackages wp pcplus [commands to run Ventura publisher] endlocal VTSR (Golden Bow Systems): [**] Version 2.0 of VTSR will work properly with 4DOS. Some earlier versions may report (incorrectly) that no TSRs are installed. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 28 Windows 3.0 (Microsoft): When the instructions below are followed 4DOS will work properly with Windows 3.0 in all modes. The standard "DOS" icon provided with Windows is set up to run COMMAND.COM, regardless of your COMSPEC setting. To run 4DOS, either go into the Program Manager's File / Properties menu se- lection for the DOS icon and change the command line entry to refer to 4DOS, or create a new DOS icon (take the File / New menu selection, then choose "Program Item") with the name "4DOS" and a command line which refers to 4DOS. In either case the command line should include the full path and filename for 4DOS.COM, plus any switches you wish to set (swapping, alias and environment size, etc.). If you want a real 4DOS icon displayed, rather than the generic "DOS" icon Windows gives you, copy the file 4DOS.ICO which comes with 4DOS into your Windows directory (for a monochrome system, use 4DOSM.ICO). You can also leave the file in your 4DOS direc- tory and enter the full path when prompted for the icon file name. Select the 4DOS icon on the Program Manager screen (click on it once), then open the Program Manager's File Properties dialogue box and click on the Change Icon button. You'll be prompted for the name of the new icon file -- just type it in and click on OK, and when you go back to the Program Manager screen you'll have a custom icon for 4DOS. (Thanks to 4DOS user Charles Jay Pilzer for providing the original icon design; we modified it with the shareware program ICONDRAW by Philip Eskelin Jr.). When creating a 4DOS icon, you may wish to set up a .PIF file instead of simply using the File Properties screen. A .PIF file will give you more control over how 4DOS is set up and started. We have included a sample Windows .PIF file with 4DOS, called 4DOS.PIF; the values in this file are examples and should be checked before using the .PIF file on your system. The 4DOS .PIF file can be called by any name, though of course using "4DOS.PIF" will make maintenance easier. You can set up more than one .PIF file for 4DOS if you wish to run different windows with different parameters or characteristics. To associate a .PIF file for 4DOS with a Program Manager icon set up as described in the previous paragraphs, first set up the .PIF file itself (using the PIF editor from the Accessories screen), then set up the icon as described above, placing the full path and name of the .PIF file into the command line field instead of the path and name for 4DOS.COM. Whether you use a PIF file or the simpler Program Manager ap- proach, if you are running Windows 3.0 in real mode or standard mode, you MUST add the parameter /V to the 4DOS command line. If you don't, the system will hang if you switch away from and then return to a 4DOS window which is at the 4DOS prompt or otherwise running 4DOS itself (rather than an application). You can add 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 29 the /V to the command line in the File Properties screen, or to the Parameters field in your PIF file. You can also set it be- fore running Windows by using the 4DSHELL variable: set 4dshell=/v If you are running Windows in 386 enhanced mode the /V is not necessary, but it will do no harm. We recommend that you always use /V when setting up 4DOS for Windows, so that if you change Windows modes 4DOS will continue to operate correctly. When running in 386 enhanced mode, you can run 4DOS in a window that's smaller than the full screen. All 4DOS commands, includ- ing "full screen" commands like LIST and SELECT, will work prop- erly in such a window. To invoke this option you must set up a 4DOS .PIF file, and set the "Windowed" (as opposed to "Full Screen") flag in the PIF editor. This flag is visible only when running the PIF editor in 386 enhanced mode. It is not set in the sample .PIF file provided with 4DOS. 3.03 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. Since 4DOS allows you to create a PATH up to 255 charac- ters long this can appear to be a conflict between Windows and 4DOS. You can solve the problem by reducing your PATH length before running Setup Applications. To do so you must exit Win- dows, reduce the PATH length, restart Windows, run Setup Applica- tions, exit Windows again, restore the original PATH, and restart Windows again. 3.03 You can easily set up the Windows File Manager so that it will consider BTM files to be "executable". Just open your WIN.INI file with any editor, and find the section labeled "[exten- sions]". Add the following line to the end of the section: btm=c:\4dos.com /c ^.btm (adjust this to show the proper path for 4DOS.COM on your sys- tem). It is NOT possible to execute BTM files from the Program Manager by modifying the Programs= setting in WIN.INI; in fact if you try to do so, the system will hang when you attempt to actu- ally invoke a BTM file. WordPerfect 5.1 (WordPerfect Corp.): [**] Early releases of WordPerfect 5.1 had a variety of problems in the way they accessed expanded (EMS) memory, and therefore may conflict with 4DOS's EMS swapping. Symptoms of the conflict include incorrect response to keystrokes, and system hangs. If you have a problem with WordPerfect 5.1 and 4DOS when using 4DOS's EMS swapping, try changing to disk swapping. If this 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 30 resolves the problem, you can probably solve it permanently by upgrading to a later release of version 5.1. 4DOS 3.03 [4-12-91] COMPAT.DOC page 31