DOS Window in Chinese XP

[Geoff Stow]

We have a Power Basic DOS product that we have been marketing for years and have prettied it up a bit with Windows wrapper. We set the screen size using the Perfect sync CWC utiliity and fire up the dos program in a shell under the Windows wrapper.
This worked fine until we took it to China, the Chinese XP without English added, shrinks the DOS screen to less than a quarter of the screen size as soon as we run the DOS program.
As far as we can figure out Chinese Windows swaps fonts to run DOS, and the only font available is so miniscule that the DOS box shrinks to accomodate it.
If we add English support this fixes the problem but ruins the Chinese environment for them.
Does anyone know how we add fonts to the DOS environment without changing the Chinese environment?
Kind regards
Geoff

[Mel Bishop]

Maybe something got lost in translation.

Have you checked the "Run Maximized" in the app properties?

BTW: I'm having the same problem running a game, "Myst", on
my machine so I'm gonna be checking this thread frequently.



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[Geoff Stow]

We cannot run in full screen mode because we have a windows wrapper that sits above and below it.
We have written a setup program to change all the CWC setting and test them.
While we are collecting the login data we are using PBwin and the Consol compiler and all works perfectly.
As soon as we pass that data in the command line to the original PBDOS program that is when the screen shrinks.
I have tried running it without the wrapper and it seems that the only Window available is too small to use, as the Consol screen immediately shrinks on running a DOS program.
This is completely irrespective any CWC settings. As this is a problem that I have only ever encountered with our software in China I guess the next thing to do is get a search on the problem done in Chinese.
Adding English support fixes it but messes up their Chinese XP environment too much.
Kind regards
Geoff

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[Donald Darden]

Aside from PB/DOS, are the Chinese able to do anything in the way
of running their own programs using something akin to GWBASIC or
QuickBASIC? Have you tried using PB/CC in that environment and
seeing what it does? (PB/CC will have its font resize automaticallyh
to accomodate changes in console size and the number of rows and
columns allocated to it to some extent - that is, too many rows and
columns will force windows to set up a scrollable window instead).

You might try a hybred solution, which is to run a small program in
PB/CC which sets up the console the way you want, then shell to the
PB/DOS program, providing the benefits of the console window that
you constructed. Kind of kludgy, but what counts is if it works.

If you don't have PB/CC, or it fails to run in a suitable manner,
then think on using something else that will let you create a
console window in the manner required and shell/run your DOS
program. Not being versed in some of those alternatives, others
may advise you on a Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, or other
suitable tool. It would be interesting to hear what finally
works for you. Obviously this is not a limitation of PB/DOS,
but a factor of how the Chinese version of the operating system
is set up to accomodate applications in English.

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Old Navy Chief, Systems Engineer, Systems Analyst, now semi-retired

[Geoff Stow]

Hi Donald
We are doing it exactly the kludgy way you mention, we set it up with PBCC, get our log in details and pass them in the command line to the DOS program. It seems that any PBDOS program shrinks the window. I believe it because the Chinese version of XP does not have the fonts available unless English support is loaded.
We are still working on it, I think the answer will come from within China, the problem is not apparant outside China. Now we just need to research the problem and solution using the Chinese language..........
Kind regards
Geoff

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[This message has been edited by Geoff Stow (edited September 20, 2005).]

[Donald Darden]

What happens when you try to run the program from the Start/Run
command prompt? Have you tried switching to full screen mode?
Have you set up a shortcut and defined the screen setting when
the program is called? I agree, that most likely the answer will
have to come from within China, but exploring the boundaries might
turn up something.

Since you are using PB/CC to kick off the program, what happens
to the screen when you simply generate output from PB/CC?

How about trying to use DOSBOX to create an environment for the
PB/DOS program? See how well DOSBOX works in that environment.

Naa, forget these questions. I just went back to your original
post and reread all the steps you've tried, and it looks like
you've exhausted the possibilities. Wish I could help. I guess
time is the factor here, but the obvious thing to do is to look
at adapting the program eventually to PB/CC. Some of us have
had experience at doing that, and you may have too. My last
big conversion took me over 50 hours, so if you are prepaired
to live on the keyboard long enough, it might be feasable.

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Old Navy Chief, Systems Engineer, Systems Analyst, now semi-retired

[This message has been edited by Donald Darden (edited September 20, 2005).]