Topic: Can not use Sys() to run Acrobat (1 of 8), Read 91 times Conf: VEDIT Macro Language Support From: Peter Rejto Date: Monday, September 18, 2000 11:57 PM Acrobat installed the acrobat.exe file into my c:\Progra~1\Adobe\Acroba~1\Acrobat directory. If I try to use the Sys() command with this path I get a "Can not shell out, ERROR 2" message. I did find a work around: I copied acrobat.exe and two of its supporting files into the Adobe directory. This seems to work. At the same time I would appreciate hearing an expert opinion. Thanks, -peter.

Topic: Can not use Sys() to run Acrobat (2 of 8), Read 72 times Conf: VEDIT Macro Language Support From: Peter Rejto Date: Monday, December 04, 2000 12:05 AM Problem solved. I did find a typo in the path. Specifically, Acroba~1 should read Acroba~1.0 Incidentally, note that if I use long filenames then acrobat.exe gives an error message about the path. However, later corrects it. Now I can read the the Vedit Manuals in .pdf formats on my PC. Thanks Ted for making these manuals available! -peter

Topic: Can not use Sys() to run Acrobat (3 of 8), Read 65 times Conf: VEDIT Macro Language Support From: David Cohen Date: Friday, December 08, 2000 12:35 PM I am not an expert and can't be sure if this is related to problem. There is a problem in that certain programs install in Program Files and then create very long pathnames due to use of long filename subdirectory names and many subdirectories. DOS programs choke if pathname exceeds a certain length. This causes me grief when I want to do a tape backup from real mode DOS using Arcada tape backup software. The pathname failure is same when running in a DOS box. Dave Cohen

Topic: Re: Can not use Sys() to run Acrobat (4 of 8), Read 65 times Conf: VEDIT Macro Language Support From: Ted Green Date: Friday, December 08, 2000 12:58 PM At 12:22 PM 12/8/2000 -0500, you wrote: >I am not an expert and can't be sure if this is related to problem. There is a problem in that certain programs install in Program Files and then create very long pathnames due to use of long filename subdirectory names and many subdirectories. DOS programs choke if pathname exceeds a certain length. This causes me grief when I want to do a tape backup from real mode DOS using Arcada tape backup software. The pathname failure is same when running in a DOS box. The maximum full pathname is 255 characters in Win98 (page 468 of the Win98 Resource Kit). However, some poorly written software creates a directory name that is so close to 255 characters, that combined with the final filename, the complete pathname exceeds 255. Depending upon how another program, e.g. your backup software, tries to open the file, it may fail due to the 255 char limitation. Assuming you can't return the offending software for a refund, the only recourse is to bitch at them and change the intermediate directory names to the equivalent "short" 8.3 name. It may surprise you that the registry uses the short 8.3 names for its links to all files. This can cause all kinds of backup/restore problems. Most people would consider this a serious bug which MS refuses to acknowledge. VEDIT user John Navas has detailed info about this on his web site: http://navasgrp.home.att.net Ted.

Topic: The (8,3) format of the Win98 Registry. (5 of 8), Read 62 times Conf: VEDIT Macro Language Support From: Peter Rejto Date: Friday, December 08, 2000 08:44 PM Thanks Ted, Yes, it does surprise me that the Win98 registry uses the (8,3) format for filenames. Then, keeping track of the long filenames must be a big bookkeeping job for both Win98 and Vedit. In fact, I would appreciate having access to the short, (8,3), filenames of my files in my Vedit buffers. In other words, I would like to have access to the short filename of the FILENAME string. I would use it to pass it to my old DOS programs, which use filenames as a parameters. Well, the idea sounds simple, I just do not know how easy it is to implement it. Anyway, it would be nice to run my favorite DOS program from within Vedit. (This is VCOMP, Visual Compare, which has nothing to do with Vedit.) Thanks again for the (8,3) info. -peter.

Topic: Re: Accessing short 8.3 filenames in VEDIT (6 of 8), Read 60 times Conf: VEDIT Macro Language Support From: Ted Green Date: Monday, December 11, 2000 11:36 AM At 09:04 PM 12/8/2000 -0500, you wrote: >In fact, I would appreciate having access to the short, (8,3), filenames of my files in my Vedit buffers. In other words, I would like to have access to the short filename of the FILENAME string. I would use it to pass it to my old DOS programs, which use filenames as a parameters. VEDIT already gives you access to the short 8.3 filename via the Dir(...,SHORT) command. Try this command at the COMMAND: prompt while editing a long filename: dir(pathname,short+nomsg) As listed in KEY-MAC.LIB, this technique is used to run our old DOS V-SPELL spelling corrector from within VEDIT: [VISUAL EXIT] Out_Reg(102) Dir(pathname,NOMSG+SHORT) Out_Reg(CLEAR) File_Close(NOMSG) Sys("vs |@(102)",DOS+MAX+DELETE+NOMSG) File_Open(@102) Ted.

Topic: Re: The (8,3) format of the Win98 Registry. (7 of 8), Read 57 times Conf: VEDIT Macro Language Support From: Ted Green Date: Monday, December 11, 2000 03:17 PM John Navas wrote: However, I think that the actual problem here is that old real mode apps are limited to a maximum path of 64 characters, far less than the 255 character limitation in Win9x. The only work-around I know of for that problem is the use of the SUBST command. See .

Topic: Can not use Sys() to run Acrobat (8 of 8), Read 66 times Conf: VEDIT Macro Language Support From: Pauli Lindgren Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2000 05:08 AM On 12/8/2000 12:35:00 PM, David Cohen wrote: >I am not an expert and can't be sure if this is related to >problem. There is a problem in that certain programs install >in Program Files and then create very long pathnames due >to use of long filename subdirectory names and many >subdirectories. DOS programs choke if pathname exceeds a >certain length. Usually you can select the directory when installing a program. I prefer to install programs to a drive other than C (it is better to reserve C drive for system files only). You can then use shorter and more descriptive directory names, too. In some cases, using 4DOS instead of COMMAND.COM may solve the problem with long pathnames. 4DOS allows command line to contain up to 1023 characters. (Of course, the application program may not be able to use that.) However, I am not quite sure how I should do that. Should I just call 4DOS.COM from Vedit, or should I change the vedit .PIF files? -- Pauli