No, it's a real MS-DOS 6 machine, with a KeyNote Gold Voicecard synthesizer. I'll be switching over to a custom desktop with Enhanced DR-DOS once it's built and, hopefully, will be able to put EDRD onto an IBM Thinkpad 310 to use for practise until my desktop is ready and for a back-up machine. I wrote an essay on this list called Why DOS that you'd probably enjoy as it explains all the reasons why I love DOS and gives links as to why it's still a viable and usable option today. If you can't find it and would like to read it, let me know and I'll e-mail you offlist. I wish I could say that VDE was proving as usable for me. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it but it's really a challenge for someone used to WYSIWYG editors like Word Perfect, NoteWorthy and even the Windows Notepad and Wordpad to try and use something that has the feel of Word Star. I can't figure out how to get it to open and read files and even the installation is strange. Fortunately, though, the documentation is extensive, so I'll have to read up on it. As I said earlier in this post, the Ed.exe program from WP is acting strangely with VocalEyes so I have no choice but to either try JAWS for DOS or ASAP with it or to try another editor. WP 5.1 works fine but doesn't save as .txt and I need that for my batch programming. Hopefully, things will be easier on the IBM and desktop, since I can then use the edit program in Enhanced R-DOS or even the one in QuickBASIC, which I can't use here, as the KeyNote's keyboard is made without certain keys. This is annoying, cause I wanted to start learning QB as well. Ah well, batch is enough for now I guess.
On 7/25/10, Alasdair King <alasdairk...@gmail.com> wrote: > May I be nosy, Eleni: why do you maintain a DOS machine? Are we > talking about a genuine boot-into-DOS-6 machine, or a Vista or XP > machine with a command prompt? Are you using a hardware synthesizer? > > I update WebbIE every couple of months, time permitting. If you have a > particular site that isn't working, do let me know and I'll try to > have a look at it, if not manage to fix it. > > Best wishes, > Alasdair > > On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 4:01 PM, Eleni Vamvakari <magkis...@gmail.com> > wrote: >> Hello Alasdair, >> >> Thank you so much for that wonderful explanation. I actually just >> found a text editor/word processor called VDE. >> >> http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,53873-page,1-c,wordprocessing/description.html >> >> It's features and usage are incredible, and if it works with a >> screen reader, then I'll definitely be using it from now on on my DOS >> machine. It actually has options for saving and loading text in >> various formats, including unformatted (with one varient being used to >> open and/or save files in NotePad's format), ascii, MS Word through >> 97, Word Perfect 4-6, Word Star and a few more. This program's >> functions can be customised but in the default settings can be >> accessed either via a menu bar or via Word Star commands. Seriously, >> I can't believe the power of this little editor! It even works on >> Windows 95/98 machines. I just hope it's accessible. If so, then >> I'll be reviewing it here later. >> >> As for the Greek, unfortunately, I can only read and write it in >> Windows. Even though there are newer editors and browsers in DOS that >> can handle Unicode, I don't have a Greek synthesizer. >> >> Talk soon, >> Eleni >> PS. I adore WebbIE but are there any plans of updating it? It no >> longer works on certain webpages. >> >> On 7/25/10, Alasdair King <alasdairk...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> There are two unrelated issues here. >>> >>> 1 How characters are encoded in the file - ANSI, DBCS and so on. >>> 2 How newlines are encoded. >>> >>> Newlines first. There is no consistent "newline" character (indicating >>> the end of a line) as there is for the character "a". Instead, Windows >>> and MS-DOS uses two characters - carriage return CR, 10, and line feed >>> LF, 13. But Unix (and Apple Mac) uses one character - line feed LF, >>> 13. So a text file can be in Windows/MS-DOS encoding or Unix encoding. >>> If you open a Unix text file in Notepad you'll find that the newlines >>> are missing and the whole thing is one big lump of text. WordPad is >>> smarter and realises the single LF characters should be newlines, so >>> you don't see this happen. >>> >>> So if you have a Unix text file - no newlines in Notepad - then you >>> can open it in WordPad and then save it as Text or MS-DOS Text and >>> it'll then work correctly in Notepad and DOS. At this point I'm going >>> to admit that I can't tell why there are two WordPad Save As Text >>> options. They both produce Windows/MS-DOS format ANSI text files. >>> >>> Now, character encodings. This is even more complicated. Essentially, >>> old-style ANSI can give you those files with lots of question marks >>> and the wrong characters. Use Unicode, which means using the UTF-8 or >>> the Unicode setting in Notepad or WordPad. Both are Unicode, but >>> different ways of encoding it - when Windows says "Unicode" is often >>> means "DBCS". But anyway, Notepad can do either type, as can WordPad. >>> Here are two files with Greek in them, one in the "Unicode" format, >>> one in UTF8. Both work in Notepad: >>> http://development.webbie.org.uk/test/text/Text-Unicode.txt >>> http://development.webbie.org.uk/test/text/Text-UTF8.txt >>> >>> Here's a detailed explanation, though some of the text is displayed >>> using images: >>> http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html >>> >>> So I think you should be able to use WordPad to open any file then >>> save it as Unicode, and all should then be well for Windows machines. >>> For MS-DOS pre-Windows machines you'll need to save as ANSI, which >>> means setting the code page of your machine to the language you want >>> to support - Greek, for example - and accepting that files with >>> Unicode and non-Greek character will be mangled on your system. >>> >>> Best wishes, >>> Alasdair King >>> WebbIE >>> >>> On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 12:42 AM, Eleni Vamvakari <magkis...@gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>>> So today, I decided to see how Word Perfect 5.1 and Ed.exe would >>>> read files saved as .txt in Notepad and .txt (MS-DOS format) in >>>> Wordpad. The only difference that I noticed is that the lines started >>>> and stopped at different points so that a sentence that began on one >>>> line in one format might have already begun on the line above that in >>>> the other. In both cases, VocalEyes didn't read the sentences >>>> properly in Ed.exe. The words at the end of each line would cut off. >>>> But in Word Perfect 5.1, it read the lines perfectly. I'm baffled by >>>> this, since Ed is from Word Perfect Corporation and even uses the same >>>> commands as 5.1. The only difference is that it saves as .txt and not >>>> as .wpd and it doesn't convert the .txt files to .wpd when you open >>>> them. I then checked the settings in VocalEyes in both programs and >>>> they were the same. >>>> >>>> I'm completely confused here. Why is it doing this? I would gladly >>>> use NoteWorthy, as I love that program, but the file was too large for >>>> it to handle. I'd like to try Microsoft Word 5.5, but for some >>>> reason, it's only downloadable as an .exe file and it's over 1.44mb. >>>> The DOS machine that I'm using right now only has a floppy drive (the >>>> pcmcia slot is taken up by the KeyNote Voicecard synth, which I won't >>>> remove unless absolutely necessary) so I have no way of getting the >>>> program on there. It also doesn't have the regular editor that's >>>> supposed to come with MS-DOS 6.21 and I can't seem to find that >>>> anywhere! I on't even know if it's accessible. Can anyone help me or >>>> recommend another editor for me to try? Should I use JAWS or ASAP to >>>> see if I get different results or are the settings in the program >>>> rather than in the screen reader? >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> Eleni >>>> >>>> On 7/14/10, Eleni Vamvakari <magkis...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> Last night, I went to >>>>> >>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_file#Formats >>>>> >>>>> and still don't completely understand this. >>>>> >>>>> "Most Windows text files use a form of ANSI, OEM or Unicode encoding. >>>>> What Windows terminology calls "ANSI encodings" are usually >>>>> single-byte ISO-8859 encodings, except for in locales such as Chinese, >>>>> Japanese and Korean that require double-byte character sets. ANSI >>>>> encodings were traditionally used as default system locales within >>>>> Windows, before the transition to Unicode. By contrast, OEM encodings, >>>>> also known as MS-DOS code pages, were defined by IBM for use in the >>>>> original IBM PC text mode display system. They typically include >>>>> graphical and line-drawing characters common in full-screen MS-DOS >>>>> applications. Newer Windows text files may use a Unicode encoding such >>>>> as UTF-16LE or UTF-8." >>>>> >>>>> So, what's the difference between a Windows and a DOS .txt file. >>>>> Does it matter, when reading with a DOS text editor or wordprocessor, >>>>> whether I saved the file with Notepad as .txt or saved it with Wordpad >>>>> as .txt (MS-DOS format)? If not, then why does Wordpad have a MS-DOS >>>>> format option? I'm pretty sure that Notepad doesn't use unicode >>>>> because I can't save Greek files with it and always have to use >>>>> Wordpad and save them as rtf. I know that files saved as either type >>>>> of .txt will read under Word Perfect and NoteWorthy but WP (including >>>>> the text editor) acts strangely with VocalEyes at times, not reading >>>>> complete lines and sometimes skipping lines, and I'm trying to find >>>>> out why it does this. I've installed the set files for Word Perfect >>>>> Office, hoping that it would solve this problem, but it hasn't done >>>>> so. Interestingly enough, it doesn't do this with all files. I >>>>> thought that perhaps it was word wrap, but apparently, it's >>>>> automatically set to on, so that might not be the case. I need this >>>>> sorted so that I can decide how to save my documents that I'll be >>>>> transferring over to the DOS machine, or if it's not the formatting, >>>>> then I need to learn what changes have to be made either in VocalEyes >>>>> or in Word perfect so that it reads properly.. I'm currently using a >>>>> KeyNote Gold laptop, which doesn't have the built-in MS-DOS editor, so >>>>> I can't test my files there and NoteWorthy can't handle large files. >>>>> I need to save the tutorials that I found for QuickBASIC and for batch >>>>> programming, so the sooner this can be resolved the better. >>>>> >>>>> Thanks, >>>>> Eleni >>>>> >>>> >>>> For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: >>>> http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Alasdair King >>> >>> For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: >>> http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ >>> >> >> For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: >> http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ >> > > > > -- > Alasdair King > > For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: > http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ > For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
