Subj : Re: Copy to file or directory? Help? Calling MS-Dos? To : meirman From : Steve Date : Fri Feb 01 2002 05:57 pm From: "E. S. (Steve) Fabian" meirman wrote: > > However, next step. If I go to the dos5 directory and enter "command", > it still says "incorrect dos version". Admittedly, when I do "ver" it > gives the version of both 4dos and dos. But how does it know what > version of dos to say? Sure the dos6 directory is in the path, and > I've used some dos6 commands, but in what way am I running version 6 > of Dos? Is it just that I've used some commands like smartdrv, himem, > and emm386? The operating system has its own major and minor version codes. Major is the integer part, minor is the "fraction part" (considered in 1/100th), e.g., DOS 3.3 Major=3, Minor=30 ; DOS 6.22 major=6, minor=22. These version numbers are part of DOS and are retrievable using INT 21H calls by any program, and are so reported by JPsoft product. Some of the software bundled with MS-DOS is sensitive to the MS-DOS version, and will quit after making the "incorrect DOS version" announcement. In most cases this is unnecessary, but some of the programs rely on features available only in specific MSDOS versions. COMMAND.COM is neither backward nor forward compatible. MS provides a TSR called "SETVER" which causes the version reported to be dependent on the calling program's 8-character name to avoid false incompatibility reports. Note that some of the utilities that had been bundled with MS-DOS 5 were dropped in MS-DOS 6 or later (Win95 = MSDOS 7.00, Win98 = MSDOS 7.10). These include help.com, qbasic.exe, comp.com. Most of these dropped utilities work fine in win98, but cannot handle LFNs. When you load MSDOS 6 in your system, the COMMAND.COM which was bundled with any eralier or later version will not function. 4DOS was made to be pretty much MSDOS version independent, ad its built-in VER command reports both the 4DOS version and the MSDOS version. When you see a 4DOS version reoport, obviously you are not executing MS's COMMAND.COM. -- E. S. "Steve" Fabian ESFabian@BellAtlantic.net POB 1540, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 Telephone: 856-354-1752 EMPIRE Consultants, Inc. Director, Software Development ------------------------------------------------------------------- --- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-2 * Origin: Mach2 Systems (1:342/3) .