Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest") (11/12/90)
Info-IBMPC Digest Mon, 12 Nov 90 Volume 90 : Issue 179
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil>
Today's Topics:
Computer problems (7 msgs)
DOS Gotcha (2 msgs)
Sending a fax from a normal modem
Today's Queries:
divide by zero errors
PATH Limits Removed?
New Upload:
ALM101.ZIP - Windows 3.0 and 2.11 compatible calendar pgm
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 08:20:00 MET
From: Rob Hooft <HOOFT%HUTRUU54.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Computer problems
Joel Elliott <jeliot@unc.bitnet> writes:
> Here's the problem: the system runs fine most of the time,
> but frequently the system locks with the message "invalid
> command.com." This happens almost every time a program or
> even a batch file is executed from the A: drive. I have made
> sure that the SET COMSPEC is c:\ (where command.com resides).
> Any ideas?
you should try:
SET COMSPEC=C:\COMMAND.COM
Rob.
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 05:04:00 EST
From: "Joel P. Elliott" <JELIOT%UNC.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Computer problems
Sorry I didn't make that clear.... SET reveals that everything is in
order (COMSPEC=C:COMMAND.COM). But the system is acting as if it
can't find this information required to refresh COMMAND.COM, or that it
has somehow been changed.
Joel Elliott <jeliot@unc.bitnet>
[Looking at THIS message with Norton Editor reveals that what you have
REALLY typed is SET COMSPEC=^[C:COMMAND.COM.
^^ ESC key-code
Now, what you WANT to enter is SET COMSPEC=c:\command.com ... Try
entering the line in all lower case characters. DOS will capitalize as
necessary for you. I don't know HOW you're getting the ESC key entered
instead of the backslash key-code, but ...
Disclaimer: I used Norton Editor, ANY other editor that displays
control codes would have worked as well. WordStar 2000 V3.0 does this
also. gph]
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 07:03:19 CST
From: "Tony Phillips (VMA)" <S102066%UMRVMA.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Computer problems
Joel P. Elliott <jeliot@unc.bitnet> said:
>... But the
>system is acting as if it can't find this information
>required to refresh COMMAND.COM, or that it has somehow been
>changed.
I've encountered that problem a few times on my simple XT Clone/CGA/RLL
30Meg 640K memory. This happened when I ran cheap third party software
from my floppy. Upon termination, it expected COMMAND.COM to be on the
A: drive. It must have not done much error checking, or relied on DOS
information, because when I put a copy of COMMAND.COM on the disk,
everything worked out OK.
I've also seen this problem with some cheap TSR's that relocate
pointers to COMMAND.COM (such as REAL early versions of 4DOS.)
Hope this helps!
Tony Phillips
President- A.C.M. UMR Student Chapter
Student of Computer Science
University of Missouri, Rolla
Reply Addresses
BITNet: S102066@UMRVMA PostalNet:
InterNet: S102066@UMRVMA.UMR.EDU 632 Thomas Jefferson
PhoneNet: (314) 341-9524 Rolla, MO 65401
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 07:34:00 EST
From: Norman Walsh <NORM%IONAACAD.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Computer problems
Did you boot off the floppy? Is the floppy running DOS 3.xx? That's
the only easy way that I know of to create the problem. If you boot
with the floppy (running a different version of DOS) and set comspec
to your DOS 4.01 COMMAND.COM, you will get this error as soon as you
load a large enough program to wipe out COMMAND.COM's transient area
and it has to be re-loaded.
ndw
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 14:44:00 N
From: "PETER SCHMITT" <SCHMITT%AWIRAP.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Computer problems
Well - it has nothing to do with the drive. But: did you check spaces
around = of the set comspec-value? DOS might be sensitive to this. Of
course it's only a "wild" guess.
//Peter
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 19:23:35 MEZ
From: Thomas <UNP072%DBNRHRZ1.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Computer problems
On Wed, 24 Oct 90 20:09:00 EST Joel P. Elliott said:
>Here's the problem: the system runs fine most of the time, but
>frequently the system locks with the message "invalid command.com."
>...
That's not enough. It must be c:\command.com or c:\4dos\4dos.com
or whatever your command line interpreter is.
Thomas
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 08:46:00 EDT
From: Dave Richardson <dsrich%ENGR.UKY.EDU@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Computer problems
You probably ought to set your COMSPEC to C:\COMMAND.COM. The added
backslash is necessary in case something changes the default path on
your C: drive, which would otherwise look for the file in the default
directory only. Apparently, DOS doesn't use the PATH variable when
looking for COMMAND.COM, possibly because the search is handled by
COMMAND.COM itself.
Later,
Dave
----
Dave Richardson \ UUCP: !{rutgers, rayssd, uunet}!ukma!ukecc!dsrich
University of Kentucky \ BITNET: dsrich%engr.uky.edu@UKMA.BITNET
Engineering Computing Center \ Internet: dsrich@engr.uky.edu
**>Unless noted, the opinions expressed here are those of the author ONLY!<**
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 11:25:42 EDT
From: Tom Reid x4505 <reid%CTC.CONTEL.COM@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: DOS Gotcha
I spent some time debugging a DOS 3.3 gotcha that others may want to be
aware of.
In modifying the path command in my autoexec.bat file, I accidently
forgot to eliminate a ";" along with the directory. Thus I had:
path = ....;;.....
DOS used the directories up to the first semicolon, but ignored those
after -- of course, with no warning. Not the easiest bug to find.
This little side-effect could even come in useful sometime to
temporarily turn off some paths.
Tom.
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 17:24:00 EST
From: "Peter D. Junger" <JUNGER%CWRU.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: DOS gotcha
I am running DOS 3.3 on a PS/2 50 and just experimented. I typed in
the following path command:
PATH C:\;C:\DOS;;C:\BIN
I then typed just PATH and got in response
C:> PATH-C:\;C:\DOS;;C:\BIN
I then entered the command PAT which on my machine calls a batch file
named PAT.BAT that sets my normal path--which is long. PAT.BAT resides
in my C:\BIN subdirectory, so if C:\BIN were not in my path the command
would not work. It did work, however. So the `gotcha' that Tom Reid
reports does not exist on my machine.
Peter Junger
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 16:49:02 CET
From: SVAGHI%ESASTSP.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Sending a fax from a normal modem
Sometime ago on this list somebody mentioned the existence of a
program which would allow sending a fax from a normal modem.
Can anybody provide more information on that, or any similar,
program ?
Thanks in advance,
Sergio Vaghi SVAGHI@ESASTSP.BITNET
[I don't remember the exact explanation, but I believe that the
equipment in question was designed to do both FAX and act as a regular
modem. The solution was NOT software... gph]
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Date: Fri, 26 Oct 90 15:38:56 TUR
From: "V70D::HUNTRESS" <huntress%v70d.decnet@NUSC-NPT.NAVY.MIL>
Subject: divide by zero errors
I wrote a C program yesterday, and I found that it only runs on one of
our PCs. It works fine on an ancient 286 with a 287, but does not run
on a 33 Mhz AST 386 (no 387), and also bombs on two other 286 machines.
I've gotten three different error messages, a divide by zero trap and
two versions of a sqrt error trap. I'm also sure that the piece of
code involved is the following:
mag = 1/sqrt( (x2-x1)^2 + (y2-y1)^2 );
sqrt has been properly declared, and I'm using a small memory model
emulating the 80x87.
The programs run about 30% before they crash. And the owner of the
last 2 286s, is sure that one of them has a coprocessor.
Does anyone have any ideas as to why it runs on my system without
floating point traps, or why it crashes on the other machines?
thanks,
Gary Huntress
Naval Underwater Systems Center
Newport RI
(401) 841-2274
HUNTRESS@NUSC-NPT.NAVY.MIL
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 20:52:11 CST
From: "Tony Phillips (VMA)" <S102066%UMRVMA.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: PATH Limits Removed?
On Thu, 25 Oct 90 11:25:42 EDT Tom Reid x4505 said:
>I spent some time debugging a DOS 3.3 gotcha that others may want to
>be aware of.
>
>In modifying the path command [...remainder of text deleted...]
This reminds me. Do future versions of DOS, IE > 3.3, remove the
limitiation on the length of the PATH command?
Tony Phillips
President- A.C.M. UMR Student Chapter
Student of Computer Science
University of Missouri, Rolla
Reply Addresses
BITNet: S102066@UMRVMA PostalNet:
InterNet: S102066@UMRVMA.UMR.EDU 632 Thomas Jefferson
PhoneNet: (314) 341-9524 Rolla, MO 65401
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 08:51:17 -0500
From: Brian Kaplan <kaplan@silver.ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: ALM101.ZIP - Windows 3.0 and 2.11 compatible calendar pgm
I have uploaded to SIMTEL20:
pd1:<msdos.windows3>
ALM101.ZIP Windows 3.0 and 2.11 compatible calendar pgm
ALMANAC 1.01 is a Windows 3.0 and 2.11 compatible calendar program. It
will schedule holidays, to do lists, both Christian and Jewish holidays
as well as Gregorian and Jewish calendars. This is a really fantastic
program.
Preston
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest V90 #179
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