Vista compatibility

[Rokrz]

Has Alpha determined if Alpha 4V8 will be compatible with Microsoft Vista?

Bob Okrzynski

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Vista compatibility

Has Alpha determined if Alpha 4V8 will be compatible with Microsoft Vista?

Bob Okrzynski

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[davej]

Re: Vista compatibility

When talking about compatibility between Vista and Alpha, be very careful what version of Alpha you are talking about - don't confuse Alpha Four V8 with Alpha Five V8. Alpha Five V8 will be compatible with Vista, Alpha Four V8 will not, nor for that matter will any DOS-based software (or older Windows-based software).

Dave

[johnt]

Re: Vista compatibility

...Alpha Four V8 will not, nor for that matter will any DOS-based software (or older Windows-based software).

Dave

With all due respect, the Microsoft site says,

�Will my MS-DOS applications continue to run under Windows Vista without modification?
Yes, they will. �

So since there is some conflicting information about dos programs and Vista, is there a definitive answer as to whether Alpha 4v8 will run successfully under Vista?

[joebronco]

Re: Vista compatibility

Dos based programs can be made to run on vista however you will need to install Virtual PC 2007. When doing this keep in mind you will still need to Have Windows xp to install within Virtual PC or this will not work. Virtual PC is a free download from Microsoft however Windows xp does have to a be a Legit copy.

[Rokrz]

Re: Vista compatibility

Has there been any more experimentation with getting Alpha4V8 to work in a Vista environment? Can anyone describe how the virtual PC2007 setup from Microsoft works to allow a dos based program to run on Vista? Thi s was mentioned by Joebronco on 06-04-2007.

My ALPHA 4V8 application has over ten years of development into it and the investment in re-creating my application is hard to swallow. The amount of time this will require is staggering.

I have already had 1 Alpha applications developer drop my project due to the complexity and maturity of the Application.

[DaveM]

Re: Vista compatibility

Basically,

You install virtual pc into your computer, install xp into virtual pc, install a4v8 into xp. Kinda straight forward.

Might suggest thst you start working on a a5v8 move over. Microsft has relented to a degree on removing dos, but it is inevitable that dos apps are going to dissapear in the future.

Dave

[SMARTII]

Re: Vista compatibility

This is just my experience:
Vista has been BETTER than Win. 2000 or XP for running well behaved DOS applications. I've even used Extended Memory DOS applications and all is well.
However, I have no experience with the DOS versions of Alpha 4.
I assume it is a well behaved application though. That means it does not have any undocumented writes/pokes into the CPU / registry addresses.

Straight out of the box I can also run CMD or COMMAND, do Subst drives, Net Use, SET, XCOPY, add/delete enviroment variables.
When you run COMMAND:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
PIF's work just fine.
If you set the PIF property->Options to:
Quick edit mode: check
Insert Mode: check
You can copy & paste into a DOS based program.
I ran them with no addons to Vista, but straight as it came from HP on an HP AMD dual core laptop, which I love!...17" and the kboard has a separate Number Pad....a MUST for me.
As well, I'm running some very complex DOS programmed database applications with 100,000 lines of code with some complex function routines and old extended memory access. It's even OK if the application jumps in and out of a second copy of DOS.
One other thing:
DOS programs know NOTHING about USB Printers, BUT,
if you set the printer to Shared, then do a NET USE command of:
Net use lpt1 \\ibml1\hp1200 /persistent:yes
It will print to the USB Printer when it attempts to print to LPT1.
ibml1 is an example name of the computer with the shared printer, and hp1200 is an example name you gave the printer when you set it to Shared.

In short, I am very disappointed in all the bad mouthing Vista has had on the I-net regarding DOS useage. I believe B. Gates has put DOS up as a Memorial to his reason for his eventual success in computing platforms. So, he just insists on keeping it active.

NOW,
I have a question:
Can A5-V8 access the Windows environment VARIABLES??

[Doug Page]

Re: Vista compatibility

If you are going to ask a question that is not relevant to the topic then you are best to start a new topic so it doesn't get lost.

After opening my A5 help file and searching for environment variable, I came up with:

API_GETENVIRONMENTVAR()

If you are using the downloaded help file, you will notice that there are THREE tabs across the top of the left hand column. The last one "search" seems to rarely be used by a lot of people but is usually the best at ferreting out info.

Hope this helps.

[SMARTII]

Re: Vista compatibility

Doug,
that did it.
I did a search of INDEX and nothing came close.
The straight SEARCH put it about 4 items down.
Tom