Reading and writing VFP (9) files - visual-foxpro

Is there any library that will let me read/write to VFP 9 files (Visual Fox Pro 9). I have found a few that will let me read/write VFP6 files, but not VFP9.
The language doesn't really matter, as far as I can run it on Linux. (so, no MS IDEs/libs)

I think this will give you an alternative ODBC driver: http://www.sybase.com/products/databasemanagement/advantagedatabaseserver

Related

Encoding of an EXE program

I haven't found any answer or clarification on this subject in the internet.
I have a very old program (over a decade old) for windows (portable executable exe). It displays data in my language (hebrew) and uses cp1255 encoding (old, today is obsolete due to UTF-8). now, the thing is - it only displays data on specific types of computers, so long I've only been able to run it on:
x32 bit windows 7
My question is whether I can get it to work on x64 bit windows 7 encoding. On the x64, the program actually launches, but it displays a whole lot of question marks and jibrish instead of hebrew. I conclude this is due to the encoding.
Sidenote: The program loads info to display from unidentified files (their extensions are fabricated and I have tried to recover and types but so long not very successful). They too, have data in hebrew using the old CP1255 encoding and also has some machine code in it (opened it with a notepad, weird symbols along with text)
I've come up with 2 possible solutions for now:
Either somehow make the program support UTF-8, translate the exe to UTF-8 (probably requires special programs or reverse engineering)
OR
make my OS support the old encoding (cp1255 / windows-1255)
I haven't been able to execute either of them.
If you have any more solutions to tackle this problem or know how to solve it with one of the possible solutions, I'd be glad!
-yuval.
Edit: By the way - I have the language installed. I am using hebrew as one of the keyboard languages and I surf the web with it.
You may have already gone down this path, but have you given a try to running in compatibility mode on your x64 machine? Right click on the executable or shortcut, open properties, and go to the compatibility tab. There is a troubleshooter there that could help.

Is there any way I can compile .PAS files into .COM files?

I am making a retro text adventure game in Turbo Pascal that will be played in MS-DOS, and I want it to be in the COM file format. I've looked it up and have found nothing on this subject. If you can help me that would be greatly appreciated.
Something other than that, whenever I try to run my program (compiled into EXE) from DosBox it can't run due to "This program cannot be run in DOS mode". Is this because I'm using Turbo Pascal 7 and need to downgrade? Thanks a lot of you can figure this out.
Set your TP7 to target dos, not windows. Note that you might have an Windows only TP product (also known as TPW)
COM files will still be out of your reach, but at least DOS exe files should run in dosbox. Keep in mind that COM files have a 64k limitation, and therefore are of limited interest.
Free Pascal is working on a DOS16-bit Dos compiler that can generate com files directly from (64-bit) Windows, and while it is working, it is not released yet.

Why does using "int 21h" on Assembly x86 MASM cause my program to crash?

I was trying to make my program accept input without the user having to press enter, so I tried the following:
mov ah,01h
int 21h
But it just crashes my program over an unhandled exception. This seems to be the way to do it according to much that I have read, so why isn't it working for me?
Now, I am fairly new to this language so I still do not exactly understand the process of how this piece of code works, so I would also appreciate what the logic is behind accepting input by pressing enter and accepting input without the user having to press enter.
MY OS is Windows, by the way.
Your code looks like MS-DOS-era assembly. VS2010 doesn't support generating DOS executables, and modern versions of Windows (the 64-bit kind) don't support running them, either. Looks like you were going by some old book or site, one that was written in late 80'es-early 90's. Back at that time, assembly was way more relevant and marketable as a job skill. Not so much these days, although some assembly knowledge won't hurt.
Decide what do you want to learn. If you want to learn modern assembly (and target Windows), get some recent guidance. The techniques are quite different, and int21h isn't among them :) If you're indeed after DOS-era assembly, set up a DOS virtual machine with DOSBox, and find some old free assembler. Visual Studio 2010 won't help you here. The latest version of Visual C++ that generated 16-bit executables was v1.5x.
Specifically why does your program crash. Int21h was how MS-DOS exposed its applciation program interface (API). Windows doesn't support it for Windows executables - there are other ways of invoking the API. When you assemble with Visual Studio 2010, you end up with a Windows executable, not a DOS one, and there's no option to generate a DOS one. As for the Windows executables, they're not supposed to invoke interrupts at all - that's a crash condition.
You need to obtain a tool set that can generate 16 MS-DOS programs. These should run on DOSBOX, or on a Virtual PC with MS-DOS installed on it. Microsoft included 16 bit tool sets up to Visual C / C++ 1.52, but Visual C / C++ 4.0 and 4.1 also contain the 1.52 16 bit tool set. The older version of the compilers would be named Microsoft C 8.xx or earlier version. I don't know if any the early versions of Visual Studio (2002 or 2003) include the 16 bit tool set.
Use the linker version 5.60 to generate 16-bit DOS applications. You can get this from:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Update/1/WIN98/EN-US/Lnk563.exe
Dirk

how can i run the debug command from windows 64x

I need to use the debug command in Windows 64x for learning purposes. When I type the command debug in the cmd, I get the following message:
'debug' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
As I understand from some previous posts that debug does not work in 64x systems. Is there any work around for this issue?
EDIT:
I am trying to write assembly code for learning. I am not allowed to use any other option for writing assembly code. I have to use DEBUG.
debug.exe is not available in any of the 64 bit windows versions. What are you trying to accomplish? One option for you may be gnu debug - http://www.sourceware.org/gdb/
I know this is an ancient thread, but others might have the same question.
In general to use legacy software, the CLEANEST way to do it is to use the build in Hyper-V. And then have PC-DOS 3.30 (or any suitable 16 or 32 bit OS) on that.
Make sure to use a DYNAMIC disk (vhdx). This allows the disk to be mounted in Windows simply by clicking the vhdx (when not in use by Hyper-V - no sharing), so this allows for simple transfers, without complex net-setup.
There are other alternatives such as DOSBOX, though to my experience their emulation have some bugs (e.g. on the ancient FCB-system - older than file-handles)
I know it's a very long answer, but I just saw your post now. Use the vDosPlus (http://www.vdosplus.org/) or vDos (https://www.vdos.info/) software to run 16-bit (MS-DOS) programs on Windows 64-bit.

Qt QFileInfo::lastread() Windows (ntfs) dosn´t work need solution

I Need to know if my file was accessed or not so I used QFileInfo::lastRead()...
That is what the docu said:
"On platforms where this information is not available, returns the same as lastModified()."
Is there any possibility to fix that for Windows (ntfs), or is there a list which holds all the filesystem types or systems for that QFileInfo::lastRead() works?
resp. is there any walkaround due sys/stat.h (?? I thought - works only for x16 and x32 ??)
i got x64 but I´m not sure.
Thank you in advance!
Matthias

Resources