VOGONS


First post, by walter_j

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I have a dos app written in clipper 5.2 that uses a windows print spooler (pagescript for clipper 4.2) that prints to a spool file that is then captured by the windows print spool program for print to a windows printer. Everything runs great, a temp spool file is created, but within a few seconds the file disappears. I'm using dosbox .73 under ubuntu 10.04.

Why would the spool file disappear?

Reply 1 of 7, by Jorpho

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Because it was programmed to, evidently. You said yourself it was a temp file; why wouldn't it disappear? The original programmer could probably tell you the details.

This isn't really a DOSBox problem unless you can say for certain that it doesn't work this way in authentic DOS.

P.S. The current version of DOSBox is 0.74.

Reply 3 of 7, by Jorpho

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Whoa there. The XP command prompt is very different from DOS. The program could very well be using some clever technique to delete the file that works in DOS (and DOSBox) but doesn't work under the XP command prompt.

Reply 4 of 7, by walter_j

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Thats the way pagescript works. It reads the temp file until the clipper app quits. The clipper app actually creates the file. Clipper is an _old_ dos compiler, and therefore it works the way it's supposed to. Only, under linux, the spool file disappears immediately after it's created. Why would dosbox do that? it makes no sense.

The app worked great for many years, until I tried to get it to work under linux/dosbox.

Are you a dosbox programmer/dev? If you are, I'd be willing to work with you to sort this out.

Reply 5 of 7, by Jorpho

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walter_j wrote:

Are you a dosbox programmer/dev? If you are, I'd be willing to work with you to sort this out.

No, I am not a DOSBox porgrammer/dev, because if I was, I would probably have immediately directed you to the prominent notice regarding the fact that DOSBox is not intended for non-gaming applications. I am surprised this thread hasn't been locked already, actually.

I would think that being "captured by the windows print spool program" would have much to do with the file not getting deleted. Why are you running this under Linux when you say this spooler is supposed to be for Windows? That doesn't make much sense either.

Also, as I said, DOSBox 0.74 is the most recent version. Does the problem occur under DOSBox 0.74? Let's start with that.