Suprising Plea
lazarus / 21-General

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J-G · 2025-01-29 16:34

I haven't been on this forum for quite some time since I haven't
written anything 

However, I have had a call from an old customer whose ancient PC has
died. I say ancient and I really mean that - it was running DOS !!!

He has a second PC which is running Win 98 though, and although I
can't recover the hard disc on his old machine I can read some
'Backup' floppy disks and have a DB3 file with names & addresses.

As an 'interesting' excercise I'm about to write a program to extract
the data and create at least a .CSV file - though I may go so far at
to write him a simple database program which can edit / add to the
data recovered.

The question I have is what setting will I need in Lazarus 2.2 to
create a program to run under Win 98?  I'm thinking Config & Target 
-  or am I on a "Mission Impossible"

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marcov · 2025-01-29 16:38

Afaik you need something FPC 2.6.x based to have a chance on running
on win9x.

Since FPC 3.0 (2015), unicode related changes necessitated an NT based
Windows.

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J-G · 2025-01-29 16:48

Quote from: marcov on January 29, 2025, 05:38:20 pmAfaik you need
something FPC 2.6.x based to have a chance on running on win9x.

Since FPC 3.0 (2015), unicode related changes necessitated an NT based
Windows.

Thanks for that quick responce Marcov.

It is as I suspected of course. I'm naturally using FPC 3.0.0 so I'll
just have to content myself with recovering the data that can be read
into Excel. The chance of me being able to sell him a new PC is
somewhat less than NIL !

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Bart · 2025-01-29 19:37

You can use Lazarus 1.6.2, but built from sources using fpc 2.6.0 (it
was released with fpc 3.0.0).
Using this combo, you can write programs for Win9x.
See https://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Version_Numbering.

Bart

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MarkMLl · 2025-01-29 19:57

Quote from: J-G on January 29, 2025, 05:48:32 pmQuote from: marcov on
January 29, 2025, 05:38:20 pmAfaik you need something FPC 2.6.x based
to have a chance on running on win9x.

Since FPC 3.0 (2015), unicode related changes necessitated an NT based
Windows.

Thanks for that quick responce Marcov.

It is as I suspected of course. I'm naturally using FPC 3.0.0 so I'll
just have to content myself with recovering the data that can be read
into Excel. The chance of me being able to sell him a new PC is
somewhat less than NIL !

Hi JG, nice to see you back in circulation. Not even I have a '98
system active, I'd suggest that the "oldest viable" these days is XP
(but don't under any circumstances let it go online: apart from the
malware risk it might try to get updates from M$ which will definitely
nobble it).

FPC 2.6.4 is viable on older systems, which has a very similar feature
set to 3.0; I think this will correspond to Lazarus 1.0.14. However
I'd suggest that you've got two problems which need to be kept
separate: (i) recovering your client's data and (ii) getting them onto
a system which is even minimally supportable.

(Noting Bart's comment: I don't know why our FPC <-> Lazarus version
is so different.)

If a system was procured during the DOS era then it's on very thin
ice: irrespective of whether it's been running or not there's going to
be lots of components (electrolytic caps, disc bearings) which are
close to failure. You might find it worthwhile trawling eBay for a
Dell or HP plus screen and either inducing them to buy it or selling
it to them with zero (or slightly negative) profit, although you'd
need to consider the OS situation carefully.

MarkMLl

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Zvoni · 2025-01-30 07:38

If you only want to "read" that db3-file (which my money is on being a
SQLite3-Database) and convert it to CSV,
copy that db3 to any "modern" Computer, install DB Browser for SQlite,
open the db3 there, go to "File - Export ...".... DONE

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TRon · 2025-01-30 07:47

Quote from: Zvoni on January 30, 2025, 08:38:18 am(which my money is
on being a SQLite3-Database)
Having mentioned the age of the machine/software I suspect it is
dbase. Always fun to figure out these kind of things but nothing that
a hex viewer can't solve

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Zvoni · 2025-01-30 08:39

Quote from: TRon on January 30, 2025, 08:47:29 amQuote from: Zvoni on
January 30, 2025, 08:38:18 am(which my money is on being a
SQLite3-Database)
Having mentioned the age of the machine/software I suspect it is
dbase. Always fun to figure out these kind of things but nothing that
a hex viewer can't solve
Ahhh.... Crap.
I always forget that blasted dBase.
You're probably right....

EDIT: Though, if it is really dBase, then TS should be able to open
that thing with Excel.....

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J-G · 2025-01-30 10:19

Well, A 'Flurry' of responses    whilst I've been beavering away
creating a program to run on MY system.

Thanks for the 'welcome back' MarkMLI -  I'm not considering any
repairs to even the Win 98 unit. If it can't be made to simply 'work'
as is then that will also be consigned to the bin.

Further explanations :  The Old Old Old PC is 'deceased' - way beyond
recovery, HDD failure. Though it does have a NEW CR2032 battery which
can be used to bring new life to the Win 98 PC. The biggest issue I
have with that is that I don't have a Com Port Mouse!  and the client
didn't bring his (he didn't bring the keyboard either but he went back
home to fetch it. Long story!!)

He also brought with him two 'Laptops' - a Toshiba Satelite Pro with
Win95 and an ACER with Win Vista - -  I haven't fired either of them
up yet.

It looks as though he hasn't got any version of Office (therefore no
Excel) on the Win 98 PC.

The real reason for this 'visit' is that I have a wierd issue with the
program. The basic creation of the database from the dBase file is
fully operational, displaying each of the 1300+ records with [Next] &
[Prev] buttons. Adding a button with an [Event] to create a CSV file
I'm getting an 'Error: wrong number of parameters specified in call to
"Assign" '   this didn't (and doesn't) happen with the same code for
the main file - viz:
Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]window.onload = function(){var x1 =
document.getElementById("main_content_section"); if (x1) { var x =
document.getElementsByClassName("geshi");for (var i = 0; i procedure
Open_NAD_File;Var  n : QWord;  C : Char;  Rec : Customer;begin 
Assign(NAD_FIle,datapath+'Leek_NAD.DTA');  {$I-} Reset(NAD_file);
{$+}  If IOResult = 0  then    begin      Read_NAD_File;   
end[...] which is accepted and :
Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]window.onload = function(){var x1 =
document.getElementById("main_content_section"); if (x1) { var x =
document.getElementsByClassName("geshi");for (var i = 0; i procedure
TForm1.PrintButClick(Sender: TObject);Var  i : QWord;begin 
Assign(CSV_File,datapath+'Leek_NAD.CSV');  rewrite(CSV_File);[...] 
This makes no sense to me so I'd be grateful for some explanation from
wiser minds

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J-G · 2025-01-30 10:24

D'oh!

Panic over - -  I've added SYSTEM. in front of 'assign' and all's
well.

I had actually tried that before posting but I omitted the 'dot' and
of course it still reported the error

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J-G · 2025-01-30 17:30

{Victor Meldrew} - - 
"I don't beleive it!"
{/ Victor Meldrew}

My 'Client' now tells me, after 15 minutes on the phone trying to
explain what a '9pin Com Port' Connector looks like (so that he could
find the mouse for the Win 98 PC!!!)  - that he's still using the last
PC I built for him (some time ago) and that is running Win 10 !!!!

I can't decide whether he's been trying to con me into recovering his
data or is just totally 'thick'    -  mind you, he did have to ask his
son to find out what O/S his latest PC is running