Re: command prompt window > 50 lines

From: Bill Stewart (llib.trawets_at_yrautromhcnerf.moc)
Date: 03/26/04

  • Next message: Russell Styles: "Re: command prompt window > 50 lines" 
    Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 14:28:59 -0700

    Russell Styles <rws0203@comcast.net> wrote:

    > On Win98Se, I could set the command prompt window to more than 50 lines,
    > and some character mode programs would work properly. An example would
    > be EDIT.
    >
    > On XP, if I set the command prompt window & buffer to 70 lines (for
    > an example), it works properly with commands like DIR and TYPE, but any
    > real program, such as EDIT, will reset the command prompt window to 50
    > lines. It will return to it's former setting when the program exits.
    >
    > I would REALLY like to correct this problem. Several other people have
    > complained about this in this and other newsgroups, but none of them have
    > ever received an answer, other than "go full screen". Full screen is
    > 80x25, which is several steps backward.
    >
    > None of the compatibility functions seem to have any effect. I am
    > using CMD.
    >
    > None of the properties help either. They work fine while I am in the
    > command prompt itself, but it always switchs to 80x50 (at best) when I
    > run any character mode program.

    _Any_ character-mode program, or just DOS programs?

    In any case, I believe the resizing of the console window you are noticing
    is a feature of the DOS emulator. Since DOS programs (not Win32 console
    programs; DOS programs) typically can't handle non-standard screen sizes
    (e.g. not 80x25, 80x43, or 80x50), the emulator will resize the screen
    automatically for you, so the DOS program doesn't get confused by screen
    dimensions it is not designed to handle.

    For example, it's possible to have a 300-line screen buffer in a CMD
    console window (in fact, that's the default on Windows 2000); but many
    full-screen DOS programs store screen dimensions in an unsigned byte
    (0..255), and hence a 300-line screen would throw it for a loop. To prevent
    this condition, the emulator helpfully resizes the screen to avoid these
    problems.

    As to why this doesn't happen on Win98, that depends on the program you're
    using. EDIT.EXE is an MS-DOS executable that's intelligent enough to detect
    your 70-line screen and use it. Other programs may not work so well. In
    most cases, you'll see the first 25, 43, or 50 lines get used, and the rest
    of the window will simply be empty. On NT, the screen probably gets resized
    before EDIT can ask for the screen size; hence the 50-line adjustment.

    I am not sure my explanations are all completely correct; they're
    assumptions based on all the behavior I have observed. But they have been
    accurate this far. Perhaps others can shed some light on this as well (or
    correct any mistakes in my analysis).

    HTH,

    Bill

  • Next message: Russell Styles: "Re: command prompt window > 50 lines"

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