Microsoft Virtual PC and Clipper->xHarbour

#1 08-05-2008, 05:11 PM

Hi !

I have a potential customer that is apparently using 'Microsoft Virtual
PC' on the company machines because some of the old Clipper 'DOS' programs
do not work on her XP machine.

Would anyone care to comment on this MS package, and its potential uses as
regards converting a 'DOS' Clipper app to work in xHarbour ?

(and what would prevent these old apps from working on the XP machine
??)

btw, I've never had any problem running old Clipper apps on *my* Win XP ...

TIA,

-Mel Smith

#2 08-05-2008, 05:52 PM

"Mel Smith" <medsyntel@aol.com> wrote in message
news:6frtvpFd2qhlU1@mid.individual.net...
> Hi !
>
> I have a potential customer that is apparently using 'Microsoft Virtual
> PC' on the company machines because some of the old Clipper 'DOS' programs
> do not work on her XP machine.
>
> Would anyone care to comment on this MS package, and its potential uses as
> regards converting a 'DOS' Clipper app to work in xHarbour ?
>
> (and what would prevent these old apps from working on the XP machine
> ??)
>
> btw, I've never had any problem running old Clipper apps on *my* Win XP
> ...
>
> TIA,
>
> -Mel Smith
>
Hi Mel

I have never used Microsoft's Virtual PC but it's free if you care to try it
on a machine you don't mind sacrificing. The of R6003 error comes to mind.
It occured because Clipper used a timing loop and on machines faster than
about 300 MHz, the time value was zero which was then used as a divisor. You
got the infamous "R6003 divide by zero" error. Perhaps, Microsoft's Virtual
PC slows the program down enough to avoid that error. There are patches that
can easily fix that error. Best thought is to redo the programs with
(x)Harbour.

#3 08-05-2008, 07:49 PM

Bill said:

>
> I have never used Microsoft's Virtual PC but it's free if you care to try
> it on a machine you don't mind sacrificing. The of R6003 error comes to
> mind. It occured because Clipper used a timing loop and on machines faster
> than about 300 MHz, the time value was zero which was then used as a
> divisor. You got the infamous "R6003 divide by zero" error. Perhaps,
> Microsoft's Virtual PC slows the program down enough to avoid that error.
> There are patches that can easily fix that error. Best thought is to redo
> the programs with (x)Harbour.

Bill:

Yes, that's the plan -- convert to xHarbour somehow.

and I had forgot that old bugaboo - R60003 error. Boy, its been quite a
while !

Yes, I did download the MS virtual PC 2007, but haven't tried it yet.
I'd like to be familiar with my client's operating procedures before I ste
in.

Thanks for the reminder.

-Mel Smith

#4 08-06-2008, 05:23 AM

Hey Mel,

> Yes, that's the plan -- convert to xHarbour somehow.
> and I had forgot that old bugaboo - R60003 error. Boy, its been quite a
> while !

Sometimes we just "forget" how good [x]Harbour is compared to good old
Clipper. No more array length problems, no more Clipper error's, no
more memory error's, no more crippled function and variable names
because they can only be 10 char's long, etc..

I'm NOT saying Clipper is bad, not at all, just saying [x]Harbour is
better... ;-)

--

Sincerely,

Patrick Mast,
xHarbour.com

#5 08-06-2008, 03:21 PM

In article <6fs78vFd55jgU1@mid.individual.net>,
Mel Smith <medsyntel@aol.com> wrote:
>
> Yes, I did download the MS virtual PC 2007, but haven't tried it yet.

You might also want to evaluate VMware Server which is also available for
free download.

---john.

#6 08-09-2008, 08:50 PM

> Yes, that's the plan -- convert to xHarbour somehow.

If the system has few third party dependencies 'converting' shouldn't be
a big deal at all. xHarbour is practically 100% backward compatible and
with a bit of work you will iron out any eventual issues. It's far from
being a 'conversion' or a rewrite.

Regards
"aardvark"

#7 08-14-2008, 02:29 PM

On Aug 6, 4:21*pm, jo...@panix.com (John Haskey) wrote:
> In article <6fs78vFd55j...@mid.individual.net>,
>
> Mel Smith <medsyn...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> > * *Yes, I did download the MS virtual PC 2007, but haven't tried ityet.
>
> You might also want to evaluate VMware Server which is also available for
> free download.
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ---john.

You might try Sun's VirtualBox, installer only 22M, really faster if
compared with VMWare and free as well.

Rodrigo

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