WordPerfect 4.2

[steven]

I've used this constantly, every single day for decades, running on either an old DOS machine or in a DOS window on an old Win98 machine.  Now the Win98 machine has finally died but some WP4.2 files (invoices most especially) aren't read correctly by anything that will run on my Win7 machine.  So I've turned to vDos.  I copied all the program files into vDos, and WP opens, then gives a message "Are other copies of WordPerfect currently running?"  This would normally appear only if opening WP after a messy shutdown.  No matter if I answer Y or N, it opens Doc 1 which looks completely normal.  I can create and save a file, but if I try to open a file (F5) I get "Put WordPerfect disc back in drive and press any key."  Of course there is no disc, but pressing any key does absolutely nothing at all, and if I try to close, I get "One or more files are open" and WP freezes.  Of course there are no open files.  The only way to exit is to open task manager and quit vDos, which gets me back to square one.  I need to open files somehow, but how?

What's going on?  Is it looking for something in the autoexec file?  I've already tried everything I could think of and the result is always exactly the same, but I'm suspecting that I haven't set it up correctly.

[Jos]

WP4.2 uses FCB operations. I guess it tests for a second copy of WP running in a way vDos doesn’t handle properly with these (in DOS times already) obsolete FCB operations.

When you use F5, WP will try to select the set default directory. Could be something like D:\WPDOCS, while D: isn’t (yet) present in vDos.
If it would be D:\WPDOCS and you relocated this to (Windows) C:\vDos\WPDOCS, add a “USE D: C:\vDos” line to autoexec.txt.
If you have an actual D: drive (and for instance D:\WPDOCS), you also have to make that drive available in vDos by “USE D: D:\”.

Seems WP4.2 doesn’t let you abort F5 with an assumed missing disk (doesn’t it show the drive letter?). Open files to WP and you are documents, to vDos any file at that moment open by WP. That are even several.

Jos

[steven]

vDos is installed on the Win7 machine at C:\users\user\my documents\vDos
The WP4.2 program files are at vDos\wp
I've made a folder under that for documents at wp\files
The Win7 machine does have an actual D: drive, but it activates the DVD/CD RW drive. Oddly enough, E: activates the same drive! No idea why... F: is an external backup disc.

If vDos becomes its own virtual C: drive (I think that is clear from your FAQs?), then the WP4.2 program files, from the viewpoint of vDos, are at C:\vDos\wp, right?

Right now, autoexec looks like this:
@echo OFF
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\WP
SET TEMP=C:\WP
c:\wp\wp
USE D: C:\vDos

WP opens with this, but apparently there is still something wrong as it still cannot access any files.

[emendelson]

Your autoexec.txt has the use D: line after wp runs (and after it closes), so WP won't see anything in d: Move that that line to before you run WP. But why do you need that line anyway?

Also, you could make things easier by putting your wp files in C:\WP and then use this in autoexec.txt:

use d: <some folder where you want to store files>
use c: c:\wp
d:
c:\wp.exe

With this WP will open and List Files will show you the folder that you specified as d:\

[steven]

I tried moving "USE D: C:\vDos" to before "c:\wp\wp" but that made no difference.

Then I tried changing autoexec to this:

use d: wp\files
use c: c:\wp
d:
c:\wp.exe

...which produced this:

C:\>use d: wp\files
D: => C:\users\user\documents\vdos\wp\files\
C:\use c: c:\wp
invalid path: c:\wp
C:\>d:
D:\>c:\wp.exe
D:\>

...which failed to open WP at all.

So, obviously still something wrong here, but what?

[Jos]

In Windows you have:
C:\users\user\my documents\vDos (vDos.exe…)
C:\users\user\my documents\vDos\wp (wp.exe…)
C:\users\user\my documents\vDos\files (your documents)

When you start vDos.exe, the DOS C: drive is set to the Windows current workdirectory. Without an explicit “Start in” directory specified in the shortcut starting vDos.exe, or by clicking vDos.exe, DOS C: corresponds to Windows C:\users\user\my documents\vDos. So these DOS directories are then known in vDos:
C:\ (vDos.exe…)
C:\wp (wp.exe…)
C:\files (your documents)

With the USE command, the left hand drive letter is that of vDos/DOS. The directory at the right is that of Windows.
Apparently you also need a DOS D: drive, where your documents are located. So you have to assign that drive letter before starting WP by:
USE D: C:\users\user\my documents\vDos\files
Or more convenient and portable:
USE D: .\files
In the latter form .\ denotes the Windows current workdirectory, so it expands to C:\users\user\my documents\vDos\. If you would decide to move the vDos directory to somewhere else, that expansion will change accordingly. No further changes needed to start vDos/WP at the new location.

The autoexec.txt file in C:\users\user\my documents\vDos would have to be:
USE D: .\files
SET TEMP=C:\WP
CD WP
WP
EXIT

Jos