Hi Donald

I have aquired a DOS program (from a friend) that must have a network driver installed and removed when it exits.... it currently works by modifying the config.sys file on entry then reboots the pc.... the same on the exit of the program..... DAMN annoying to say the least.

On another note.... here's one for you..... I need to do the following in a door........

the first NODE to run needs to create a common area like a ramdisk
all other NODEs then need to detect that the common area exists
as long as there is any NODE running then the common area remains until
the door is no longer running.

The main thing that is needed is to be able to create approx 8096 bytes of common area and to be able to read and write text files to that common area.

cheers Dennis

... "DOS for dummies"? Isn't that what Windows is?
--- FMail 1.48
* Origin: The Maze BBS... Christchurch... New Zealand (3:770/355)

Hi Donald
I have aquired a DOS program (from a friend) that must have a network driver installed and removed when it exits.... it currently works by modifying the config.sys file on entry then reboots the pc.... the same on the exit of the program..... DAMN annoying to say the least.

I don't know of any way for a DOS program to load any kind of device driver on its own. Bear in mind I'm a novice at Windows programming type stuff, but my understanding is that all versions of Windows, but especially XP and Vista, will NOT allow DOS device drivers to be loaded by a DOS program under any circumstance. XP does not let you run device drivers such as ANSI.SYS in a config.sys file, for instance. In fact, XP does its best to discourage you even trying to have a config.sys file if I recall right.

I can't recall details but I think I read in a computer magazine somewhere that
one can load and run ANSI.SYS on a WinXP system by editing one of the WinXP system init files. But I can not remember which file other than it was probably in the WinNT\System folder. As for anything to do with Network drivers, I've never used any and don't know how they work.

I don't think you will have any luck with a pascal program being able to create
a RAM disk drive either. That sort of thing, as far as I know, MUST be done at
system bootup. And Windows XP does NOT like DOS device drivers very much, and makes it very hard to use them.

Hopefully someone else will have better information on whether any of this can be done or not. I don't understand why a DOS program even would care if the system was part of a network. Some of this stuff MIGHT be doable inside a Windows application, but I have no idea how or if that would work.

The main thing that is needed is to be able to create approx 8096 bytes of common area and to be able to read and write text files to that common area. cheers Dennis
... "DOS for dummies"? Isn't that what Windows is?

Why can't the DOS programs create a sub-directory on the hard drive they are being used on, and use that for storage of its data files? I just can't imagine
there is ANYONE who is using a system that does not have a hard drive in it. I think you're going to have to change
your idea from using a Ramdisk area to a hard disk directory setup.

Have you checked with the experts on BBS programming such as Bryan Turner and Michael Preslar to see if they've ever done anything like this sort of thing in
their programming work? Donald

--- BBBS/LiI v4.01 Flag
* Origin: Prism bbs (1:261/38)

Why can't the DOS programs create a sub-directory on the
hard drive they are being used on, and use that for storage
of its data files? I just can't imagine there is ANYONE who
is using a system that does not have a hard drive in it. I

It is doing this at the moment BUT the routines are doing a continuous loop looking for a semaphore file and only exiting when it is found thus the HD is continually active. This is creating a problem with other nodes when they attempt to access the same folder especially when trying to read/write a file that is assigned as a global semaphore file and uses LOCK/UNLOCK routines.

I am going to try tonight to put in a timed delay into the loop.

cheers Dennis

... 586, 32Mb 40ns RAM, 4Gb 2ms HD. Now Windows will beat DOS!
--- FMail 1.48
* Origin: The Maze BBS... Christchurch... New Zealand (3:770/355)

Why can't the DOS programs create a sub-directory on the
hard drive they are being used on, and use that for storage
of its data files? I just can't imagine there is ANYONE who
is using a system that does not have a hard drive in it. I

It is doing this at the moment BUT the routines are doing a
continuous loop looking for a semaphore file and only exiting when
it is found thus the HD is continually active. This is creating a
problem with other nodes when they attempt to access the same
folder especially when trying to read/write a file that is assigned
as a global semaphore file and uses LOCK/UNLOCK routines.

you have no disk cache software running? if not, you should... this is a perfect example of why one should run a disk cache...

I am going to try tonight to put in a timed delay into the loop.

better to use a timeslice "delay" in there... that way the time can be given up
to other tasks running on the same box... also, it'd probably be just fine checking every 5 to 10 seconds... you might be able to get away with up to 30 seconds, too... it all depends on the rest of the setup and the desired reaction time... just remember that another task bogging down the system can cause delays in the ability to react...

)\/(ark


* Origin: (1:3634/12)

you have no disk cache software running? if not, you should... this is a perfect example of why one should run a disk cache...

I totally agree with you, Mark. Even though I *do* have a ram disk "program"
that works under recent Windows versions, I haven't used it since the advent of
NT4.

It's a total waste of memory space since even the built-in cache function on
an NTFS disk works much better on "liberating" the disk from excessive access.

---
* Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)