Your CIOS file request: Q-METHOD hotline item

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Received:  by CIOS Mailer; Thursday 8 May 2008 10:01:52
Date:         Thu, 8 May 2008 16:00:38 +0200
From:         Peter Schmolck 
Subject: Re: PQMethod/PQROT on newer PCs (and Macs?) with DOSBox
To:           Q-METHOD@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU
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Having visited several people on my campus with differing types of PCs
and Macs I made sure that PQMethod under DOSBox runs fine and
hazzle-free also with Vista, and I now know some important details
regarding the Mac. I've got both, the Windows and the Mac version of
DOSBox, in separate directories, of course, on my USB stick, and one
PQMethod directory with subdirectory projects with the data for both. 

I already gave the instructions for Windows in my quoted message (with
two minor typos corrected in the quotation) already. 

Specific issues for the Mac:

* The Mac version of DOSBox comes with a file named "DOSBox
Preferences". 
You must copy or rename this file to dosbox.conf, to have the
modifications in this file take effect. 

* The mount command in the [autoexec] section of the dosbox.conf is,
e.g.,
mount c: /Volumes/SMK2
("SMK2" is the name of my USB-stick)

* PQROT makes use of function keys F1 thru F9, some of which are used by
default already for certain Mac functions. With a "keymapper", DOSBox
provides the possibility for binding alternative (or additional) keys to
the PQROT-functions. I made up a keymap.txt file that binds the
numeric-keypad keys 1 thru 9 to F1 to F9. However, I then noticed that
the MacBook does not have the numeric keypad, and little choice of
alternatives for substituting the function keys. Guess there is no
choice but disabling the defaults for the function keys. DOSBox itself
uses Ctrl-Function keys for certain funtions, beware of Ctrl-F9 that
exits from DOSBox altogether. 

* Mac vs. DOS/Windows format of text files, regarding EOL (end-of-line,
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline), _not_ character encoding:
PQMethod under DOSBox (as well as the usual version in Windows) reads
and writes files in the DOS-format. There is no problem reading the
PQMethod-output file .lis with a Mac text-program. However,
existing project files from the old MQMethod for Mac must first be
converted before they can be used as input to PQMethod.
Converter-tools mac2dos and dos2mac that run from the command line _in
DOSBox_ are available, for instance at:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=169314. There
certainly exist also Mac programs for that purpose.

I hope I didn't forget anything of import ...

Peter



Peter Schmolck wrote (Sat, 3 May 2008 16:42:12 +0200):
> 
> My impression from scanning through internet pages where people report
> about problems with old DOS programs, especially games, was that it's
> very much a matter of hardware. Some of the nowadays graphics cards
> (ATI?) simply discontinued to support certain standards ("VESA"-soandso,
> don't ask me what it stands for) that are required by DOS programs like
> PQROT. Telling XP or Vista to run PQROT in Win98-compatible mode would
> not help in this case. However, there exists a solution I repeatedly
> found as a recommendation: The freeware DOS emulator DOSBox. I checked
> that under XP, and it works well, and it is set up quickly. It should
> work the same way under Mac OS X (both versions), but I can't describe
> the details myself, since I don't have a Mac nearby.
> 
> Specifically, my recommended solution consists in putting everything on
> an USB stick. (I presume the same USB stick could hold both, the Windows
> and the Mac version, so one would be prepared to continue work with
> PQMethod on different computers.) According to my Windows experiences,
> USB sticks usually are FAT32, and not NTFS, and therefore cannot make
> problems with access privileges potentially restricted to administrator
> only.
> 
> What perhaps nobody knows, PQMethod.exe that is distributed within the
> current 2.11 package, is _not_ a DOS program, and therefore cannot be
> run in DOSBox, as is the case with PQROT. Therefore I've already used
> another GFORTRAN-compiler version (DJGPP) that produces DOS-only code.
> 
> Now the instructions:
> 
> * Download the current version of DOSbox (http://dosbox.com/), and when
> running the install let it go to the USB-stick drive, usually f:.
> 
> * Download the DOSonly version of PQMethod 2.11 at:
> http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~schmolck/qmethod/PQMethod211_DOSonly.zip
> (this link is not published anywhere except in this message), and
> extract folders and files to the USB-stick drive (folders are pqmethod
> and subfolder projects).
> 
> folder on the USB stick, and add the following commands at the end of
> the file, i.e. after the following two lines:
> [autoexec]
> # Lines in this section will be run at startup.
> keyb us
> mount c: f:\
> PATH=%PATH%;c:\pqmethod
> set EDITOR=c:\pqmethod\ed.com
> set VIEWER=c:\pqmethod\view86.com
> c:
> cd \pqmethod\projects
> 
> If you do not have the US keyboard layout replace the "us" in keyb us
> by, e.g.,  gr for German ... The following looks like providing the
> entire list: http://www.easydos.com/keyb.html.
> 
> The "f:" in mount c f:\ is the drive letter of the USB stick. Change it
> if necessary.
> 
> * Running PQMethod from the USB stick:
> - If everything was set up OK, then you will see the prompt
> c:\PQMETHOD\PROJECTS>
> 
> Just entering
> pqmethod lipset
> 
> at the command prompt, starts PQMethod with the lipset-demo project.
> 
> * To end and close DOSBox, enter
> exit
> at the command prompt.
> 
> Notice that the drive that is mounted as c: in DOSBox, still is f: (or
> whatever it is on your PC) under Windows. And of course, you can access
> the project files, especially the .lis, with your windows programs as
> you are used to.
> 
> I hope there will be at least on Mac user on the list who can find out
> and tell us whether and how the same can be accomplished on a Mac.
> 
> Peter
> 
> --
> Peter Schmolck   http://www.unibw.de/paed/esf-en/pers/schmolck

-- 
Peter Schmolck   http://www.unibw.de/paed/esf-en/pers/schmolck