Hi!

I've just happened to find your post because I also posted something about Lotus 123 in a different forum that is also hosted in this site.

The forum I'm from is for the DOSBox program. The first thing you should know is that XP is the first home Windows that isn't built on DOS, but on Unix.
However, it has a DOS emulator so we can still run DOS programs and games (the emulator makes them think you really have DOS).

DOSBox is just a (much) better emulator and it's a small free program. The way it behaves is that you just need to make sure to run it first before entering any DOS application (e.g. you enter the command prompt and type: dosbox.exe 123.exe).

Anyway, I can confirm that Lotus 123 v2.4 does work - both directly and via DOSBox. Alas, it's not perfect in DOSBox because I can't edit the cells - only rewrite them from scratch (see below).

So here's what I want you to do:

1. First of all, I want you to tell me your exact version ("3.1+"?).
2. Then, I want you to try to run it via DOSBox.
3. Last, but not least, if it works, I want you to tell me if you experience the same cell edit problems I have in my version 2.4.

Please tell me if you agree. If so, please report on your progress.

Wow, thank you for the reply.

I'm running Lotus version 3.1+. When I try to load it in Dosbox, I get the Lotus logo for a moment, then the screen goes to a c prompt with the error message "vm error [38] internal error."

When I try to run Lotus from the command line prompt in XP Home, the program loads but the display is highly distorted and I cannot read it.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Steve Adler

Wait a minute, so you already knew DOSBox and all this time you've only had this error with DOSBox?

Why didn't you post this in DOSBox's forum then?

And does the logo say 3.1+? A Plus version?

I'll check the type of 123 v3.1+.

Yes, I alreadyt knew about Dosboc, I guess I didn't say that.

Sorry if I posted in the wrong place or for any other confusion. It's the first time I ever posted to Dosbox (and the second time to a forum of any sort).

Thank you,

Steve Adler

The forum I'm from is for the DOSBox program. The first thing you should know is that XP is the first home Windows that isn't built on DOS, but on Unix.

It is not built from Unix. Please don't post things if your not sure of them. It only causes confusion.

XP belongs to the NT series, which I thought was Unix based.
I've tried looking it up in Google. One page said Unix, one forum said OS/2 (another user then contradicted it and pointed to VMS...) and no one seems to really know for sure. The only thing everyone can tell is that it's not DOS...

So if not Unix, what is the NT series really built on then?

Windows NT was completely written by Microsoft
It has NOTHING to do with Unix...

Windows NT started to be developed under the name OS/2 3.0. Then Microsoft split with IBM and they did Windows NT. (But that does not mean that Windows NT is OS/2 based!)

Mirek

Well, if we're gonna be factually correct...

It may have originally been a joint IBM/MS wishlist product but Windows NT actually had its roots in VMS (a aged operating system that at the time limited to running on Digital VAX systems). Dave Cutler left Digital to join Microsoft and is considered to be 'father of the Windows kernel. If you were/are a systems developer of both OS's you'll see the similarities between the two OS's. A shame that Windows NT didn't learn/take more from VMS as it would have simply been a killer OS! Instead rubbish like OS/2 and Posix support layers added crap that really no-one used seriously but took years to be removed.

One bad thing Microsoft did early on was dropping support for the different platforms they supported. I developed software for use on the 64bit edition of Windows NT4 on AlphaServers. The project had to abandon the (hugely expensive) hardware already purchased as the software (OS, tools, etc.) were no longer maintainable. Cost someone a lot of cash...

OK here is the information on the Lotus 123 I'm trying to run and I thought I would add the memory requirements the program documentaiton says I need.

The program is Lotus 123 Rvision 3.1+. There is no A nor B after 3.1+.

The program requires a minimum of 1MB of RAM, with 640 KB of convenitonal memory and 384 KB of extended memory. It also requires BUFFERS >= 20 and FILES >= 20.

I'm hoping I can figure out how to run the program under DOSBOX. I'm not a computer whiz, so it will be a challenge. I've tried learning from other posts to this forum.

Thank you,

Steve Adler

I don't know. Version 2.4 just runs with the default DOSBox settings.

And forget about declaring "BUFFERS" and "FILES". DOSBox doesn't support config.sys (a simple text file in which you define them and other DOS settings).