Help for the newbie.

[newtodbase]

I have an old DOS program with several .exe files, *.dbf tables and *.ntx files. What else do I need to run the application? Do I need Clipper installed, etc? Do I need to set any paths? The program seems to run in a DOS session under XP but does not seem to be pickinp up the data from the tables - just as if I were starting with new blank tables although I know these have plenty of info.

THanks in advance.

 

[pbsd]

Safest approach is to put all exe's, dbf's, and ntx files into the same folder and run the .exe from there. Data in dbf's should be picked up from that folder unless programmer has coded specific paths into the program itself.

As long as exe's are doing the job, you won't need Clipper itself. However, you'll need it if you want to alter the .prg files from which .exe's are compiled.

 

[Stella740pl]

So if your program runs without throwing an error, as if it had new blank tables, here is what you can try to do.

It probably does create new blank tables somewhere if it doesn't find existing ones; so search your disk for another set of *.dbf and *.ntx files with the same names. Back up, just in case, then overwrite them with the copies of the files with data that you have.

 

[JockMullin]

Good advice from pbsd & Stella740pl

Another reason the program may not display any data even though the .dbf files are large (over 2k) is all the data on file may be flagged as deleted and the prog may suppress it. Deleted data is retained until a cleanup (pack) is run on the files but typically the program will be set to ignore it.

You can try opening the .dbf files in Excel. NOTE: DO THIS ONLY ON A COPY - EXCEL WILL CORRUPT .DBF FILES.

Open excel, click on file, change files of type to dBase (*.dbf) and then try opening the copy in Excel to see what is in there. Excel doesn't know about deleted records, so it should show you what is there.

When you are finished, do NOT save changes.

Jock

 

[PC888]

Another catch, if the .ntx files are not synchronized with the .dbf files, you may not see some of the records.
When I program, I usually check if a .ntx file is available, if not, I will recreate it (with the index command). So in your case, try to test without the .ntx file and see if it works better, but BE SURE TO TRY WITH COPIES.