command prompt window > 50 lines

R

Russell Styles

I understand that this newsgroup says "win2000", but there is
no cmdprompt newsgroup for XP.

On Win98Se, I could set the command prompt window to more than 50 lines,
and some character mode programs would work properly. An example would be
EDIT.

On XP, if I set the command prompt window & buffer to 70 lines (for an
example), it works properly with commands like DIR and TYPE, but any real
program, such as EDIT, will reset the command prompt window to 50 lines. It
will return to it's former setting when the program exits.

I would REALLY like to correct this problem. Several other people have
complained about this in this and other newsgroups, but none of them have
ever received an answer, other than "go full screen". Full screen is 80x25,
which is several steps backward.

None of the compatibility functions seem to have any effect. I am using
CMD.

None of the properties help either. They work fine while I am in the
command prompt itself, but it always switchs to 80x50 (at best) when I run
any character mode program.
 
P

Paul R. Sadowski

Russell Styles said:
I understand that this newsgroup says "win2000", but there is
no cmdprompt newsgroup for XP.

On Win98Se, I could set the command prompt window to more than 50 lines,
and some character mode programs would work properly. An example would be
EDIT.

On XP, if I set the command prompt window & buffer to 70 lines (for an
example), it works properly with commands like DIR and TYPE, but any real
program, such as EDIT, will reset the command prompt window to 50 lines.
It
will return to it's former setting when the program exits.

Haven't seen that but I'm not using 16 bit programs like edit.com.

Try a 32 bit console editor. Perhaps a console editor like FTE.
 
R

Russell Styles

Paul R. Sadowski said:
Haven't seen that but I'm not using 16 bit programs like edit.com.

Try a 32 bit console editor. Perhaps a console editor like FTE.

I am actually not interested in EDIT, I just used it as an example,
because it
comes with windows. This problem happens with any character mode program.
Some go
all the way back to 25 lines, but there are a few that allow basically any
number of lines (like
buerg's LIST). With Win98, I get 70 lines. With XP I get 50. I do not
remember what happened with Win2000.
 
P

Phil Robyn [MVP]

Russell said:
I am actually not interested in EDIT, I just used it as an example,
because it
comes with windows. This problem happens with any character mode program.
Some go
all the way back to 25 lines, but there are a few that allow basically any
number of lines (like
buerg's LIST). With Win98, I get 70 lines. With XP I get 50. I do not
remember what happened with Win2000.

For a LIST-like program, try LIST.EXE in the Windows Resource Kit Support Tools
(free). It will use whatever number of lines your CMD console window is set to.
LIST.EXE is a *very* useful program.
 
B

Bob I

If the program you are running sets its screen such that it only
displays x lines, how is the operating system supposed to "generate" the
additional screen?
 
R

Russell Styles

TOP POST

I believe that I owe an apology to all of the people that replied to my
queries, here and on the microsoft.public.windowsxp.basic newsgroup (all 4
people).

It seems that Win98 was in fact restricting me to 50 lines, but it was a
font that I have not copied to the XP pc yet. Oops. (Hint: it works better
when you plug it in).

Once I copy the 8x18 font, all should be well. I was using 8x12, and
getting only 2/3 thirds of a screen.

I should be grateful for the fact that XP does allow more than 50 lines,
albeit only when at the prompt.

Oh well. I learned a lot while I was crawling the newsgroups. Lots of
interesting URL's and advice and utilities.
 
B

Bill Stewart

Russell Styles said:
On Win98Se, I could set the command prompt window to more than 50 lines,
and some character mode programs would work properly. An example would
be EDIT.

On XP, if I set the command prompt window & buffer to 70 lines (for
an example), it works properly with commands like DIR and TYPE, but any
real program, such as EDIT, will reset the command prompt window to 50
lines. It will return to it's former setting when the program exits.

I would REALLY like to correct this problem. Several other people have
complained about this in this and other newsgroups, but none of them have
ever received an answer, other than "go full screen". Full screen is
80x25, which is several steps backward.

None of the compatibility functions seem to have any effect. I am
using CMD.

None of the properties help either. They work fine while I am in the
command prompt itself, but it always switchs to 80x50 (at best) when I
run any character mode program.

_Any_ character-mode program, or just DOS programs?

In any case, I believe the resizing of the console window you are noticing
is a feature of the DOS emulator. Since DOS programs (not Win32 console
programs; DOS programs) typically can't handle non-standard screen sizes
(e.g. not 80x25, 80x43, or 80x50), the emulator will resize the screen
automatically for you, so the DOS program doesn't get confused by screen
dimensions it is not designed to handle.

For example, it's possible to have a 300-line screen buffer in a CMD
console window (in fact, that's the default on Windows 2000); but many
full-screen DOS programs store screen dimensions in an unsigned byte
(0..255), and hence a 300-line screen would throw it for a loop. To prevent
this condition, the emulator helpfully resizes the screen to avoid these
problems.

As to why this doesn't happen on Win98, that depends on the program you're
using. EDIT.EXE is an MS-DOS executable that's intelligent enough to detect
your 70-line screen and use it. Other programs may not work so well. In
most cases, you'll see the first 25, 43, or 50 lines get used, and the rest
of the window will simply be empty. On NT, the screen probably gets resized
before EDIT can ask for the screen size; hence the 50-line adjustment.

I am not sure my explanations are all completely correct; they're
assumptions based on all the behavior I have observed. But they have been
accurate this far. Perhaps others can shed some light on this as well (or
correct any mistakes in my analysis).

HTH,

Bill
 
R

Russell Styles

Bill Stewart said:
_Any_ character-mode program, or just DOS programs?

In any case, I believe the resizing of the console window you are noticing
is a feature of the DOS emulator. Since DOS programs (not Win32 console
programs; DOS programs) typically can't handle non-standard screen sizes
(e.g. not 80x25, 80x43, or 80x50), the emulator will resize the screen
automatically for you, so the DOS program doesn't get confused by screen
dimensions it is not designed to handle.

For example, it's possible to have a 300-line screen buffer in a CMD
console window (in fact, that's the default on Windows 2000); but many
full-screen DOS programs store screen dimensions in an unsigned byte
(0..255), and hence a 300-line screen would throw it for a loop. To prevent
this condition, the emulator helpfully resizes the screen to avoid these
problems.

As to why this doesn't happen on Win98, that depends on the program you're
using. EDIT.EXE is an MS-DOS executable that's intelligent enough to detect
your 70-line screen and use it. Other programs may not work so well. In
most cases, you'll see the first 25, 43, or 50 lines get used, and the rest
of the window will simply be empty. On NT, the screen probably gets resized
before EDIT can ask for the screen size; hence the 50-line adjustment.

I am not sure my explanations are all completely correct; they're
assumptions based on all the behavior I have observed. But they have been
accurate this far. Perhaps others can shed some light on this as well (or
correct any mistakes in my analysis).

HTH,

Bill

Thanks for your response. As my previous post states, I discovered
that this whole
mess is the result of stupidity on my part. Win98 does NOT allow > 50
lines, but I do have a larger
font on that pc, making it look longer. Doh.

Also note that you are the ONLY responder that seems to have
understood my
orignal post, even if it (my original post) was incorrect.
 

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