Problems with 16 bit sub-system

[Tony Hedge]

I've got a strange problem with the 16-bit subsystem on XP Pro SP2.

I use a very old DOS cross-assembler tool. It works by spawning from one
program to the other, passing arguments. It's a third party tool, so I
have no control over it.

I've never had any problems running it under XP. It would always run
either from IDE's which can invoke assemblers etc, from cmd.exe or from
command.com.

Last time I needed to use it was November time, when it was working
fine. Since then, of course, there have been lots of Xp updates, and
I've installed various new (to me) MS tools (VS2005, CE5.0, eVc4 etc).

When I tried to use the cross assembler yesterday, I got all sorts of
problems!

I can run it from a command line in a command.com window - no problems.
The first part of the program generates a pre-processed file, and passes
the file name correctly to the second program.

But if I try to run it from a command line in cmd.exe, it looks as if
its working, but the second program doesn't seem to receive the
file-name parameter from the first. Likewise if I try to invoke it from
an IDE. I really need to run it from an IDE to be able to capture error
messages etc - command line software development is something I'd hoped
I'd left behind 25 years or so ago!

I can't find any clues despite searching every newsgroup, forum, support
site I can search! Microsoft have a KB article describing very similar
symptoms but only for Vista!

My own suspiscion is that it has got broken by an update, but
unfortunately its almost 6 months since I used it - I can't face trying
to roll back so far.

Any ideas much appreciated.

Thanks
Tony

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I've got a strange problem with the 16-bit subsystem on XP Pro SP2.

I use a very old DOS cross-assembler tool. It works by spawning from one
program to the other, passing arguments. It's a third party tool, so I
have no control over it.

I've never had any problems running it under XP. It would always run
either from IDE's which can invoke assemblers etc, from cmd.exe or from
command.com.

Last time I needed to use it was November time, when it was working fine.
Since then, of course, there have been lots of Xp updates, and I've
installed various new (to me) MS tools (VS2005, CE5.0, eVc4 etc).

When I tried to use the cross assembler yesterday, I got all sorts of
problems!

I can run it from a command line in a command.com window - no problems.
The first part of the program generates a pre-processed file, and passes
the file name correctly to the second program.

But if I try to run it from a command line in cmd.exe, it looks as if its
working, but the second program doesn't seem to receive the file-name
parameter from the first. Likewise if I try to invoke it from an IDE. I
really need to run it from an IDE to be able to capture error messages
etc - command line software development is something I'd hoped I'd left
behind 25 years or so ago!

I can't find any clues despite searching every newsgroup, forum, support
site I can search! Microsoft have a KB article describing very similar
symptoms but only for Vista!

My own suspiscion is that it has got broken by an update, but
unfortunately its almost 6 months since I used it - I can't face trying to
roll back so far.

Any ideas much appreciated.

Thanks
Tony

If it runs under the legacy command processor "command.com",
why not stick to that environment?

An easy way out of your dilemma might be to install a Virtual
DOS machine, using Microsoft's Virtual PC. You can download
it freely from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

 

[Tony Hedge]

If it runs under the legacy command processor "command.com",
why not stick to that environment?

An easy way out of your dilemma might be to install a Virtual
DOS machine, using Microsoft's Virtual PC. You can download
it freely from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

Thanks for the suggestion re the Virtual PC - its something I have been
thinking of to resolve other dilemmas like conflicts between CE6.0 and
CE5.0 installations.

My problem with either of your suggestions in this case is simply one of
productivity. If I can run the cross-assembler the way it used to (and
should) work, I can integrate it into an IDE along with (Win32) editors,
download utilities, version control systems etc. Assembly errors come up
in an editor window, click on them and the editor goes to the offending
line of source. The last thing I need is to have to go and do
command-line assembly and then go off to look up errors manually!

But that is my problem, not yours! Thanks for the help - I'll carry on
trying to make it work somehow.

Thanks again
Tony

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I suspect he will need to use the VPC 2004 virtual machine additions for
DOS. The VPC 2007 vmadds don't even support Win95 anymore. Steve Jain has
them in a zip file for download at http://vpc.essjae.com/. (He doesn't need
to run VPC 2004 to use the old vmadds.)