[TechAssist] Re: Two Operating Systems on one computer

  • From: gulftech@xxxxxxxx
  • To: techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 09:58:56 -0600

Bill,

What a nice note.  Thank you.  I can't say I understand everything, but
your points are well-stated and make sense.

I will post this on TechAssist, for the benefit of the list.

Thanks for your time and information.


Ken Smith
Gulf Technical Services
3034 Gulf Breeze Parkway
Gulf Breeze, FL  32563
850-934-8324 (Voice) 850-932-0819 (Fax)


On Wed, 6 Nov 2002 09:24:51 -0500 "Wheeler, Billy"
<Billy.Wheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> Hi Ken,
> I was just scanning through yesterday techassist digest and ran 
> across your
> question.
> I can give you several good reasons (from experience).
> I have older dos based programs that will not run on Windows 2000.  
> Windows
> 2K does not contain
> a background dos, it emulates one or tries too.  The older windows 
> operating
> systems i.e.
> Windows for Work groups, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows 98, 
> all still
> had and used
> standard dos calls to access things like hard drives, serial ports, 
> the
> parallel printer ports, floppy drives, keyboard,
> etc. The dos (disk operating system) with it's standard protocol was 
> born
> back in the '80s.
> It provided a standard path for programmers to write universal code
> (programs that could run
> on any and many different types of computer) and still be able to 
> interface
> with drives, keyboards, communication
> ports, etc.
> DOS is still very popular with some of us old farts.  Have you ever 
> tried to
> rename a group of files using Windows
> 95, 98, 2K ?  If you can find and use Winfile it's not too bad but 
> to do it
> with Dos is easy.  You just type in
> REN C:\*.txt C:\*.old
> and it renames every file extension it finds on the C drive root 
> directory
> with a .txt to .old   
> 
> I have older programmable controller software that
> has no new windows version to replace it with.  This older software 
> bypasses
> the windows operating
> system and does dos calls to access the printer, check the floppy 
> drive
> status, etc.  I tried running
> on Windows 2K and it choked!  I have several other programs that 
> require a
> special key (called a dongle)
> to be plugged into the parallel printer port in order to run.  The 
> programs
> check that key using dos calls
> to address the printer port.
> The same goes the other way around.  I also have newer programs that 
> won't
> run on the older windows
> operating systems.  They are smart enough to check to see what 
> version you
> have installed and will not
> run if it detects an older version.
> 
> Ken, I hope this helps you understand our side of it a little 
> better.
> For home, it's probably not that big of a deal as it is for our work
> environment, where we have to
> maintain old equipment and programs as well as new ones.
> Bill
> 
> 
> Bill Wheeler
> Valeo Sylvania
> Seymour, Indiana
> Assembly Engineering
> (Electrical)
> Phone: 812-524-5315
> 
> 
> 


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