QuickBasic Cafe Forum

I have a qb routine monitoring a printing +packing process over RS232 and that word98s fine on olde DOS computers and on Win 98 and Win 98SE . Does not work however on Win 2M,ME and XP . I get a device timeout when trying to address com1 or 2 , or device unknown when trying to address com3 or 4 .
Any ideas how to solve this sticky thing ????

Nobody has responded to your request. I will give you my personal opinion which, once other see it, will, no doubt, bring out other points of view or, even, knowldege!

My program in QuickBASIC 4.5, which uses SCREEN 13, worked fine on Windows 98. When I bought a new computer with Windows XP, this program crashes. I went to the Microsoft web page and found out that "Microsoft no longer supports QuickBASIC 4.5", so, that's that. I can only use QB for whatever Windows XP still allows (not graphics in SCREEN 13). That is, I can do math, logic, etc., but I can't plot a curve in a SCREEN 13 mode. So, to use my program, I learned enough Visual Basic, Version 6.0, to rewrite it in that language. Most of my QB language was usable "as is" in VB, some I had to change. Of course, no SCREEN 13 is necessary in VB, which makes it a little easier to use.

My thoughts on your question would be, "Give to Caeser what is Caeser's". If your QB program does not run on Windows versions later than 98, rewrite your program in VB or some other language that is supported by Microsoft for the later Windows versions. After all, even though we would love to keep on using what we already know, you just have to adapt to change!

Ralph A.

Having written the previous entry in this thread, I have had some further thoughts on the subject, and have posted a new thread with my question,

What is the definitive ansewer, can QuickBASIC with SCREEN commands work properly in Windows XP?

Perhaps, if I get some help in this, we just might get lucky and have them asnser your question also, I hope. Let's wait a few days and see!

RalphA

A "few days" have gone by, and, nobody has posted a reply to my post. I sure wish some guru in this would reply with a few good answers and solutions to the problem with graphics commands in QuickBASIC and Windows XP.

Search for DosBox and VDMSound. One of those might help.

Thank you, Dr. I searched for DosBox and, it seemed to me that I would have to mess with uninstalling and reinstalling Windows XP (my version). This kind of messisng with I cannot handle, but, if I'm wrong, please reply back.

No, you shouldn't need to reinstall Windows. Actually, there are quite a few links, so here's a direct link to download the installer.

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dosb ... e?download

Thank you once again, Dr., for your kindness in proptly responding to my plight.

I went to the link you posted, and tried a number of things...and got confused. I did find an email address for the University of Kent, so I composed and, just now, sent them a short letter, asking for help in downloading a copy of DosBox.exe, and any instruction on how to used it for running QuickBASIC Version 4.5.

If I am successful in this, I will post my experience here, for the benefit of others who, as I, are having poblems running QuickBASIC 4.5 programs under Windows XP.

Oh, sorry. That page does look kind of intimidating.
Try this instead. The download should start a second or two after you click the link.

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dosb ... irror=kent

Again, many thanks, Dr_Davenstein! I clicked on your new link, downloaded DosBox.exe, read the Readme.txt file in the downloaded files, went to a link found in the las Q&A there: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewforum.php?f=39
It turned out to be a great, very easy to understand, elementary description of how to start running a DOS .exe file, just what your usual beginner needs to start him off!

Regards,

Ralph