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win95/98 -> win2000 dbase IV compatibility issues 2

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fidopdp

fidopdp

Technical User
Jan 15, 2003
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Hello everyone,

I'm a junior level systems administration and I'm wondering if anyone could share their knowledge of Dbase IV compatibility issues in a win 2000 environment. We are currently running win 95/98 computers and ready to upgrade to 2000. We are concerned with any problems dbase IV may have in the new environment such as printing, network speed, and corruption of files.

Would appreciate any help in this matter. Thanks for reading!

 
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Win2000 does not have a DOS environment like Win95/98. You'll likely have trouble running dBaseIV on Win2K machines. There's always a better way...
 
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Thanks for the reply!

Would DBase IV run properly directly from DOS in Win 2000 environment?

Unfortunately we don't have the funds to upgrade our software from Dbase IV. Are there any patches or upgrades available that can prevent some of these problems? What type of problems should we be expecting here?

Also how I find out what version of Dbase IV we're running?

Thanks for the help!
 
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To get the currently runnning version, from the command line:

? version()

 
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No, dBase won't run in the "DOS" portion of W2K. W2K's so-called DOS is so pared down that it really doesn't support much more than the old .BAT files - which w2K relies on heavily for various installation and set-up functions.

If your business relies heavily on dBase IV than I suggest that you NOT upgrade to W2K - or keep at least one W98 machine that will run your dBase applications.

Of course, you can always run your dBase files in MS Access. You won't be able to run your dBase IV applications but you can easily create new ones without losing your existing data. There's always a better way...
 
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I really disagree with tviman. One of my clients is currently running a large dbase IV payroll system. 4 of 14 districts are running in Win2000Pro. Large meaning 55,000 lines of code and hundreds of thousands of records. One district has been running for over a year now.

The one problem we haven't been able to lick, is record locking. Win2000Pro will not respect record locks set by other stations. We setup a workaround with a product called Virtual PC. The dbase program runs in a Win98 Window on a Win2000Pro machine. Through testing we found that WIN XP had the same record locking problems. If you do not require locking then it should not be a problem.

The configuration is slightly different. (i.e. .NT configuration files and screen setup)

By the way, Clipper works great with Win2000Pro. (My main line of business in the legacy software end of things)
 
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I would have to disagree with some comments made here about running DOS apps on Win2K. I cannot speak for dBase IV, however, dBase V for DOS does run on Win2K. We have been doing it for a couple of years now. The only problem we have is if the computer is shutdown without exiting the app. dBase V has an internal buffer to it's database. Adnormal shutdown causes the last couple of updates to be lost and can corrupt the indexes. A Quick reindex ususally fixes the problem. However, under normal operating conditions, it runs fine.

As for printing, we simply redirect the lpt1 port to a network printer.

Would I recommend doing this for new apps. No. There is nothing to say that a future Service Pack or OS won't break the app. In our case, these are apps that were written 10 years ago and will be rewritten in the future.

Hope this helps.
 
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I'd just like to thank everyone for their very useful input.. we are apparently going to go ahead with the conversion to win2k so i'll let everyone know how db4 will handle the transition!
 
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Why not change to dBase Plus? Christopher F. Neumann
[dBASE Charter Member]
Blue Star Visual dBASE graduate
ICCP certified TCP/IP Network Analyst
 
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I have a client that runs a VERY old Dbase IV program that seems to run fine on Windows 2000. Of course the application is stored on a Netware server and the command lines are simply run from the server. I am however having an issue printing on one of the newest 2k machines. It seems when this user prints reports from within the program, they get overlay copies of multiple pages on 1 page. And if this doesnt happen, the 3rd or 4th page is extremely slow to come out. Has anyone seen this issue before? The printer is setup to "print directly to dos", but even setting back to spooling has not helped. The client is in the process of converting the program to a Sql based application, but in the mean time, this program is mission critical. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
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In response to:

cfneumann (Programmer) Jan 31, 2003
Why not change to dBase Plus?
Christopher F. Neumann
[dBASE Charter Member]
Blue Star Visual dBASE graduate
ICCP certified TCP/IP Network Analyst



We have a private programmer who wrote our software several years ago in dbase IV. I am not sure how difficult the process would be to convert and run the program under dbase plus. Do you have any suggestions?

Also, I have posted our current situation in another thread, but basically we have 10 machines running win2k now in a department with win98 machines using dBase IV v2.0.. the win2k machines are running the dBase IV program under extreme lag and printing simply doesn't work (spools forever and never reachese queue).

Would appreciate any tips you guys might have! THanks a million! In all honesty, I think we would have been happy sticking with the win98 platform but we almost had no choice but to update.
 
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in response to:

cfneumann (Programmer) Mar 14, 2003
Yes, look into dBASE SE at
It is geared for updating the old DOS dBASE applications. Once it is converted to SE, it will be in dBASE Plus.
Christopher F. Neumann
[dBASE Charter Member]
Blue Star Visual dBASE graduate
ICCP TCP/IP Network Analyst
Data Communications Engineer

Thanks for the suggestion. Reading up on dBase SE and my supervisor sounds interesting in purchasing it. Out of curiosity, how much of the conversion would be automated through the program itself? I am asking because I know hardly anything about dBase programming and we are working with a program that was written by a person whom no longer works here. I am reading through the manual and it seems like we would only need some adjustments to menus and such. Is it a simple conversion?
 
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Just like to share the good news. We figured out all of the issues and would like to share our methods with the board.

We were using a NT4.0 server that was not part of a domain and the users were connected through a hub.

After adding the server to part of a domain and having the users connected through a switch, we have found the lag and printer issues to be resolved.

Thanks for all the help!
 
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