Old DOS navigation program

[trevethen]

Is there any way that I could run my old DOS program under XP?

The program is available to download to look at and use - if you know of a way under XP - as "Download nav-prog.zip" at http://www.westerly-owners.co.uk/html/downloads.html

I was able to use it in 98SE by including all the DOS files it needed in the folder, but XP will not allow me to do it.

So, anyone know how to use it in XP, or able to convert it to an XP program??

I would be most grateful to be able to use it again.

many thanks,
Philip

[Platypus]

XP will not allow me to do it.

Even if you set a compatability mode for Win98 or 95?

[trevethen]

Platypus,
can you explain what you mean. I am not too well up on computers, so you will have to spell it out for me.

I have tried copying the complete zip file into a folder with the DOS files I used before, but now it will not run. Have you tried downloading it and getting it to run?? If so, did you get it to run, and again, if so, what did you do to get it running.

I know it is not a very sophisticated program, but it does all I need to make up "course cards" during winter to use as contingency backup if my gps fails.

BTW, where are you in Aussie. I spent 25 years on containerships going to Aussie.

regards,
Philip

[Platypus]

OK, running interpreted Basic can take a bit of organising in XP, and my XP system is going to be in pieces for a while...

The download file is double-zipped, so the .ZIP produces NAV-PROG.EXE. This in turn is a self-extracting archive, when run it produces 80 little files, including the Basic interpreter GWBASIC.EXE. I assume it's these files you have in a folder.

It does all run happily in a Win98 DOS-box, but if XP is unhappy with it, maybe the simplest way around it would be to put all the files on a DOS boot floppy and boot with it when you want to use the program.

The other question will be printing, if you need to print hard copy. The program expects to have an IBM Proprinter on the parallel port. Do you have an old dot-matrix printer you can set up on the parallel port?

I'm inland, Wodonga on the Murray river, 2/3 of the way to Melbourne from Sydney.

[trevethen]

I can see what you are getting at now. Just like having different OS's to boot up with.

I can get all the opened files onto one floppy, but will have to burn it to a cd as this notebook doesn't have a floppy drive. I can copy DOS 3.11 from an old notebook onto this comp and include that on the cd.

As for the dmp printer, I was able, in '98se to print to my Epson via parallel port. This notebook doesn't even have a serial, that alone a parallel port. All my printing now is via wireless to two printers - a colour Epson and a b/w laser. Experimentation will be called for if I can get the DOS program to work. I could always kick it back to the old comp and connect one printer to the parallel port, seeing as how I can access the old comp via wireless.

It would be good if I could get the DOS program re-written in a more modern format to run on XP.

I only ever saw the port areas of Aussie - Freo and Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney (White Bay and Botany Bay) - other than a train trip up the Yarra. I would like to get back to Aussie one day for a holiday and see more of the country.

[Platypus]

Systems without a floppy drive complicate matters further - you won't have any success simply copying DOS system files to a CD, you would need to create a bootable CD.

You could be caught between the two with printers, if the printer previously had success with a DOS emulation on Win98, XP may still not allow it to work, especially over a network, and there will be no emulation if you boot to DOS. Some printers which are not Windows GUI printers (ie they still have their own memory and print engine, and connect to the parallel port) could work OK from DOS.

If your intention is to have the laptop with you, does this eliminate the need for printouts anyway?

Also, have you searched for an equivalent Windows program?

[trevethen]

The idea is to leave the laptop at home when out sailing and only have printouts for backup if the gps fails - hopefully not, and I do have two on board.

It looks more complicated than I was hoping. It was just that the program had all my routes and waypoints, and I was hoping to resurrect the program, as it can do so much - courses and route calculations, tides, and sun/moon times.

Perhaps I will have to bite the bullet and look for an uptodate program that will run on XP.

If you know a programmer that could translate the program into Windows from DOS.....
then we could make some money????

Many thanks for your help.
regards,
Philip

[Platypus]

The first thing always for looking at converting someone else's program is copyright...

Since it seems your old computer is still in use, any chance of using it to boot up DOS when needed, and maybe find a dot matrix printer somewhere that still works just to hang permanently off its printer port?

[trevethen]

Yes, I think this is the easiest answer.

The strange thing is, all the sub-programs within the main program work, with the exception of the first 3 - the 3 that I want!!

The old 486 120Mb-HD 30Mhz 128Mb-ram laptop still works at times, so I will give it a try with the Epson or laser printer.

Ooooh, back to 3.11!!

many thanks.

[ShadowWynd]

Have you tried DOSbox?

Dosbox is a free DOS emulator - emulates an old 386/486 class machine. It is useful for running old games or software that don't work under XP or 2k.

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net

The best way to set it up is to create a directory like "dosdrive" in the root of the hard drive and then edit the Dosbox configuration files to have lines like:

mount c c:\dosdrive
cls
c:

at the very end. You would then copy the files from the navigation software to the c:\dosdrive folder (perhaps in a courses directory), then once Dosbox is running simply go to the courses folder and run the courses batch file.

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The program seems to run OK, but it failed for me on the first three options
saying that it can not load the file.

For instance, one line of failure is:

10680 shell "Dir c:*.ar? |sort <c:ccp.dat"

Which all this line is doing is creating a sorted list of all the .ar files in the directory.

The way I altered this was to change the "courses.bat" file to:

@echo off
dir *.ar? > ccp.dat
gwbasic cc.bas

and then added a REM to 10680, so that command is not executed (since it was exectuted before the program ran)

10680 REM shell "DIR C:*.AR? | sort <c:ccp.dat"

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[trevethen]

Thanks for giving it a go. I will give this a try other the next few nights.