Ok, Spent quite a few hours testing the various versions I outlined before. Of the 4 Dos emulators I've tried to date, it looks to me as if DOSBox is the best. Here are a few notes that I have made in case others want to get started with Dosbox as well. 1. DOSBOX natively doesn't support lpt1 printing or network operations. For DataPerfect purposes therefore, we have to use a version thats been compiled called MegaBuild. At this point I've tested MegaBuild6 for a few days. Available: http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000/ (Scroll to the bottom for the download locations). 2. Configuration options will not work correctly if installed under \Program Files. Suggest you install to a folder under your C:\. For example c:\dp. 3. Your network card has to be capable of emulating an Ne2000. 4. Dosbox uses configuration files. You can specify your own, or use variations of the default configuration file dosbox.conf (which is what I recommend). Under older versions of DosBox you had to cause dosbox to manually write out the configuration file (start doxbox and from the console config -writeconf <filename>). However, the newer versions have an option to edit the conf file directly.Under your start menu entry, choose configuration, then edit configuration. 5. If you are operating in a network environment, have drive and printer mappings set up. For example: Net use lpt1 \\<ip address>\<Printer NetBios Name> /persistent:yesNet use lpt2 \\<ServerName>\<PrinterName> /persistent:yes Net use N: \\<ServerName>\<Directory> /persistent:yes So for example in my case: net use t: \\10.168.0.123\public\archive /persistent:yesnet use lpt1 \\10168.0.11\canonir3 /persistent:yes 6. At the end of the DOSBOX configuration file, we have to tell Dosbox to mount the drives, and to run dataperfect etc. At the bottom of the dosbox.conf there is an autoexec section - commands which dosbox will execute everytime it is run. So I put: Mount c t:\test (My data perfect test directory is \\10.168.0.123\public\archive\test)c: (Changes directory to the new "c" drive)dp26yu main14 (my DP executable name, followed by the application.) I would also suggest investigating the /d-<location> with dataperfect. Configuring DataPerfect as I have done here keeps the temp files on the network - and it means that operation is slower than it should otherwise be. Ideally, your temp files should be stored locally, and probably your DP executable should be as well, with only your application residing on the network. 7. Printer support: In the configuration file you will find several lines that say "parallel=". For Network printersparallel1=file dev:lpt1parallel2=file dev:lpt2etc. I understand (but have not tested) that for local printers:parallel1=reallpt Timeout: A bit higher up in the configuration file there is a line that says timeout=. Dataperfect writes a bit out to the lpt1 port, and then runs, writes.. for a time, then runs.If your timeout setting is set to low (and it defaults to 0 on my version) your reports will generate a new page (due to the timeout) every time DP stops writing data. Conversely if your timeout is set too high, your resports will be a long time in closing and printing. I set timeout=10000, although any value from 10000 to 30000 is probably fine. 8. Other settings DataPerfect will run pretty well on any machine with enough horsepower to run system 7.However, it can (and should) be sped up. There is a line in the configuration file that says cycle=. If you run dosbox with task manager open, you can increase dosbox's usage of the CPU as you desire; you will find that up until dosbox is consuming about 95% of the system resources it performs faster and faster. (And after that it will slow down). (Ctrl-F12 to consume more resources, Ctrl-F11 to consume fewer). On my computer, cycles=100000 seems to work well. You also have the option of setting cycles=max. However, while that is supposed to set the value to the maximum sustainable value, in practise my cpu usage never got over 3-5% setting cycles=max. 9. Other useful bits: Once you've gotten Dosbox working as you like it, On the desktop shortcut for Dosbox, include a "-noconsole". This prevents the console window from opening in the background and makes the overal package and presentation neater. Ctrl-F5 for screen prints (which will be found in capture directory).Cut & Paste works using mouse.I have not tested with DPMouse or shellAlt-Enter still works to switch between window and fullscreen mode.
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