A4v7 in Vdos

[Jeff Carroza]

Hi everyone. Does anyone have any experience running Alpha4V7 in vdos. I am trying to keep access to some old dos applications while upgrading to Windows 7 and Windows 10. I downloaded the latest version of vdos, installed it and made the autoexec changes to run a4. The program loads and the small sample files seem to work as designed. When I try to use applications I designed, which are larger, I get all kinds of problems. Forms don't display correctly, queries don't display correct records, field rules don't work etc. The vdos crashes when I try to update indexes on the main parent dbf and the set. I have reached out to the developer of vdos, but they don't have the familiarity with a4 that the members of this board have . Thank you in advance for any help.

Jeff C

[Joseph Ravey]

Hi all
Re. Vdos I'd just like to echo Jeff Carozza's request. (Same problems as him) As a long time Alpha dos user, vdos looks like the best thing since sliced bread! If only someone could sort it - the old program looks revitalised somehow - I guess like others here I've built up my application over many years - Having recently tried out an "0ff the shelf" solution for my garage servicing business, I soon realised I wouldn't be able to cope with its limitations & am going to stick with good old Alpha come hell or high water.
Any help would be much appreciated (that's an example of an English understatement)

Joe R

[Jeff Carroza]

Hi all, I have attached sample files if anyone wants to try to replicate the problem I'm having.

Jeff C

[Jeff Carroza]

Hi all,

The problems A4v7 is having in vDos are related to an FPU. A4 is calling for the FPU when doing any functions involving math. Vdos doesn't support an FPU; so when Alpha calls for it, the call is ignored. This causes the program to crash or freeze. The developer is looking into this, if I find any additional information I'll post it here.

Jeff C

[Jeff Carroza]

Hi all,

I have been in contact with the developer of vDos. vDos was developed with out a FPU. A4 versions 4,6,7 and 8 came with WEMU387.386, a FPU emulator. This is a windows device driver and it can't be used in a virtual dos machine. So A4, in versions 4 or greater will not run correctly in vDos.

Jeff C

[Jos Schaars]

To clarify further: A FPU was indeed for some reasons omitted from vDos. One of these; as I started the vDos project, I didn’t know of any DOS program requiring this. Until now no problem, I guess, only two vDos users reported this missing over the last 4 years or so. For programs, I’m not interested in.

Alpha Four at some moment removed the internal math functions, replacing those with functions relying solely on a FPU. Accommodating new Windows NT machines w/o a FPU, while older DOS machines were supposed to have a FPU. What object had Alpha Four in mind, easing the transition to Windows NT with a Windows installation of a still entirely DOS based program, depending on NTVDM and limiting its use in DOS? They should of course have recompiled A4 for Windows 32-bit, a familiar text-based genuine Windows A4 program with some Windows extensions (like printing), that would still run in Windows 64-bit. It would have cost a programmer a week or two of work to make the transition, but would also interfere/compete with the upcoming A5…

Basically you (A4 DOS users) are left in the cold by Alpha Four. I added FPU support to my to-do list, but it has no priority, you could check the next vDos release if it emulates a FPU.

Jos Schaars (vDos)

[Jeff Carroza]

Hi all,

I found my old A4V3 install disks and loaded them onto a Win10 desktop with vDos. Everything thing seems to be working well. I've only worked with the sample files, but they seem to be functioning. The sets can be opened and mathematical functions appear to be working. I haven't tried any of my apps yet. I don't think the files can be read in v3 and the applications would have to be redone. FWIW any v7 or v8 user who has a copy of A4 v3 or earlier should be able to use vDos.

Jeff C

[admin@dcitelecom.com]

The latest release of vDos (09/16) has added FPU support and also works with a4 networked data. Multi-user shared database and file locking is now supported. We are running alpha4v7 in Windows 10, 64 bit without issues.

[arie515]

I've been running for several years multi use Alpha 4 V8, with about 5-6 users.
My setup is a dozen virtual XP machines, running on dedicated Windows 10 computer. Using Oracle free Virtual box for the virtual XP machines, and free Team viewer or Remote Desktop utilities for remote access. All work fine.

[waingram]

The latest release of vDos (09/16) has added FPU support and also works with a4 networked data. Multi-user shared database and file locking is now supported. We are running alpha4v7 in Windows 10, 64 bit without issues.

I have been running A4V7 using vDos under 64-bit Windows 10 for about a month now and it seems to run quite well.

One thing I've noticed however, is that even when the program is idle, it is using between 14-15% of the cpu (with 0 disk activity). Could this be a side-effect of your FPU implementation?

[BartAustin]

I have a4v8 running fine in VDOS but it doesnt save changes to multi user mode.
It does save other changes but not multi user mode.
Other / Configuration / Default Settings / Multi-user mode

What am I doing wrong?
I am on Win 7 64 bit. latest VDOS.

[rayjohnson]

Hello to everyone. I have used dos versions since 1988.
I have a windows 10 laptop that I run Alpha4v8 on and it works very well. It entailed downloading free Oracle virtualbox 6.0 and installing windows xp in virtualbox. The window size is adequate (larger than when running windows 7 pro with the windows virtual machine).
This is a link to the video I used to get windows xp on the internet and working.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6r-2EdC30c
YOU must setup antivirus. I used avg free and malwarebytes free.

Best to all.

Ray J.