[plug] Dosemu

[Brad Campbell]

Garth Atkinson wrote:
> 
> Hi Brad
> 
> From pure curiosity what is the name of the accounting package?

Arrow, it's written in DataFlex.

> Your dosemu approach is doomed. Multiple DOSEMU sessions will not
> properly synchronise their access to the underlying file system (are you
> using redir ?). Even if the underlying filesystem did the best job that
> it could with file locking, the dosemu session will buffer some
> reads/writes that will probably bring the whole setup crashing down.

Spewing to say the least :p)
I'm not using redir at all, dosemu looks at tht ext2 drive natively.
 
> I messed with this stuff for about a month before going bald. I ended up
> using Caldera OpenDOS (Y2K OK) on each workstation (using Novel drivers)
> with Linux running that excellent freeware Novel Server package (name
> eludes me) as a server.

Yuk, for this application, I wanted to centralise for bandwidth reasons,
so
moving back to a distributed aproach is not an option.
I'm doing some research into the native locking Dataflex uses to see if
it
will solve my problems.. I have a feeling it will.
 
> You might try to install microsoft networking in each dosemu session and
> map a network drive (unfortunately Linux cant be using the network card
> for this to work). The data synchronisation rules change with networked
> file systems (I think - but not with redir).
> 
> Kudos to dosemu developers for the way they implemented LPT? capturing.
> Very clever.

Yeah, it's quite nice really.

I'll run some checks and see how it goes. I have done a contra with the
guy who supports the package in WA, he will show me how to set up
dataflex
for this type of environment and I will show him how to setup a linux
box
to do all this.. Somehow I feel he's getting the better deal as I'm not
getting paid for any of this :p|
 
-- 
Brad....
"The ultimate result is that some innovations that would
truly benefit consumers never occur for the sole reason
that they do not conincide with Microsoft's self-interest"
- Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson
         /"\
         \ /     ASCII RIBBON CAMPAIGN
          X      AGAINST HTML MAIL
         / \