Richard Bonner wrote:
| ray (***@kicas.net) wrote:
|| Anyway, as with my beloved 4DOS, the first thing I want it to get
|| the thing into full screen text mode opperation. I can't stand
|| working at a CLI inside a tiny window. Can it be done?
|| If not, I won't be using this.
|
| *** Full-screen CLI seems to work in some systems and not others. I
| have a Toshiba laptop that will not full-screen FreeDOS.
|
| Within other systems such as Windoze, I hate looking at those
| minuscule CLI boxes. Even requesting full screen only results in a
| small, vertical rectangle running up & down the left side of the
| screen. It's especially bad when the GUI resolution is set very
| high. Then one gets an even smaller sliver along with very small
| text. )-:
Unlike 4DOS, the CLI-s designed for the WinNT platforms heavily utilize
various Windows API-s. Newer versions provide features (commands, internal
variables, environment functions, and initialization directives) that
utilize features supported in API-s which are available only in later
versions of WinNT. There are some features in more recent JP Software, Inc.
CLI-s which are valid only on when running on a later Microsoft platform
than the earliest one on which the CLI is usable.
4NT v6 requires Win98 or later. 4NT v7 and v8 both require Win2000 or
later. TCMD/TCC v9, v10 and v11 all require WinXP or later.
On to the "miniscule CLI boxes" issue. Since the OP noted the use of
4nt8, my remarks below refer only to WinNT-style platforms. As all my
platforms run WinXP, I cannot test whether or not they would work on a
Win98-style platform. When running ANY "console program" (Microsoft's
untechnical term for TUI=Textual User Interface) in windowed mode (not "full
screen"), either the alt-space hotkey, or a right click on the left top icon
in the window brings up its "system menu". Select "Properties" (pressing P
or by clicking) brings up a menu which allows selecting Font and Layout. The
FONT tab allows selecting fonts so large that even those with impaired
eyesight can read them. The Layout tab allows selecting both a "screen
buffer" size (which limits how far back you can scroll in the display
history) and a "window size" (the width and height of the window into the
screen buffer visible when you select "maximized" display). If the "window"
is narrower than the "screen buffer", a horizontal scroll bar allows you to
scroll it left or right within the screen buffer. Using this system menu you
can set up a "screen buffer" and a "window size" which are 80 columns wide,
and select a font size which will make the window cover the full width of
your screen, effectively achieving the near equivalent of "full screen"
operation without switching to FS mode. I personally utilize "full screen"
mode for a few of my old 16-bit PC-DOS tools, which are often more
convenient to use that way. Some of them, when used in windowed mode, on
exit limit the "screen buffer" size (and thus also the "window size") to 80
columns, which I personally find too narrow. To eliminate this after effect
I use the START command, running them in a separate window from TCC. In
4NT/TCC I use Vince Fatica's 4console.dll plug-in, which allows me to scroll
the screen horizontally in windowed mode (but not in "full screen" mode)
using alt-arrow keys, and his FSTOGGLE.EXE for switching between windowed
and full screen modes programmatically.
Unfortunately the Microsoft program NTVDM.EXE which emulates MS-DOS in
graphics mode, and is the actual interface between any text mode program and
the display, was designed only to support MS' COMMAND.COM, which only
operated in 40- and 80-column screen widths. As a consequence "full screen"
does not allow any of the other screen sizes supported on platforms other
than WinNT. I often operated my PC-DOS/MS-DOS machines, and even Win95 and
Win98 machines, with 132 column by 60 row modes, and never in 80x25 mode.
--
HTH, Steve
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