On Wed, 23 Dec 1998, Trevor Jenkins wrote:
>Provided that they are "well-behaved" it is possible to run MS-DOS
>applications under Windows NT. Indeed they run better under NT than do the
>same applications under Windows 95 and 3.1. They are run as separate threads
>and therefore can be scheduled along with 32-bit Windows applications.
>
>The well-behavedness is basically that they cannot access the hardware
>directly.
________________________
December 29, 1998
Hi Trevor!
And thanks everyone for your messages about using SignWriter 4.3 on Windows
NT - I received several private messages about this, as well as the ones
posted to the List, so I will try to answer them now.
Thanks for informing me that other MS-DOS programs work on Windows NT -
that is a good point for me to remember. But meanwhile, I do not believe
SignWriter 4.3 is one of them. I suspect that SignWriter 4.3 does "access
the hardware directly", as you say, although I am not one hundred per cent
sure.
As you know, I am not a programmer, although I am involved with the
development of the SignWriter Computer Program. I work directly with the
programmers, telling them what I envision. I also do all the Symbol Editing
and Keyboard Designs. Plus I write most of the manuals teaching people how
to use the program. And I handle tech support first, and if I cannot answer
a question, then I refer the person to our programmers.
I have not had a chance to discuss this issue with our programmers yet, but
this is what I do know....that SignWriter 4.3 for MS-DOS is written in
Microsoft Pascal and Assembly Language. It is based on the
IBM's original 640K memory model. Of that 640K, SW uses most of it, so if
Windows NT is set up in a way to load extra software into the low 640K
memory, SW will not have enough memory to start. It doesn't matter how many
megabytes of extra memory you have, because SW can't access it. I hope this
information helps!
The moral of the story? Develop new software, and while we are developing
it, don't use SignWriter 4.3 on Windows NT (try Windows 95 - it seems to
work 99% of the time :-)
Valerie :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Valerie Sutton at the DAC
Deaf Action Committee for SW
SignWriting
https://www.SignWriting.org
Center For Sutton Movement Writing
an educational nonprofit organization
Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA
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