Dynamic Alternatives
P.O. Box 59237
Norwalk, CA 90652
562 802 1639



Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 04:11:21 -0800

04 00074 60 02110302




Mr. Rod Welch
rodwelch@pacbell.net
The Welch Company
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111 2496
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Subject:   Font Nesting Errors with A and B Commands

Dear Rod,

HTML Errors

In the record on November 2, 2002...
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http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/02/11/02/131131.HTM#P15I

....you discuss closing the P tag.
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Closing tags are optional for several tags, which I why I said that tags *should* be closed, rather than *must* be closed. This one can be ignored for now.
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The one class of error that is killing opera is the incorrect nesting, primarily of tags but also of anchors with and . Correcting the nesting issues are the only thing that *must* be done in order to get the records to format properly in Opera.
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/z switch

This and the /e switch are needed to get 4DOS (not DOS4) directories formatted exactly as in MSDOS. I am looking into possible ways around this. My solution to adding the switches was to put them just before the '>' that directs the output rather than at the front where they interfere with editing. I think that should get around most of the editing problems.
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I will let you know what I find about working around the need for the /z /e switches.

It appears that there may be problems with adding the switches even at the end. When I launched SDS today, it died when I tried to open my records. It works on either yours or mine in "no archive" mode. I am looking into this and will have more after I see if your update has any effect, and after I see about fixing the defaults on the DIR command.
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Advantages of 4DOS
  • It offers a far richer set of commands, and a very powerful batch (.bat) language. There are commands for loops, screen operations (you can actually build entry forms and popups), and an improved IF statement.

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  • * It offers file completion so that if I enter part of a file name and press {tab}, it will cycle through files that start with what I typed.

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  • It has command history, so that if I have run a command, I can enter the start of it and press up arrow to cycle through all the recent commands that I have used starting with the prefix I enter. I can also choose from a popup window. I save the history so that it is the same every time I open a command window.

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  • It supports aliases so that it is possible to create new commands that work like batch files. This is the feature I intend to investigate concerning changing the defaults on the DIR command.
  • It has numerous functions for parsing file names, strings, system information, etc.
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As with many tools, the benefits matter only if you use them. I install 4DOS everywhere I work just for the file completion and command history. I haven't really gotten into the power of the batch language, but I have seen it used to do quite impressive things.

Having you move to 4DOS won't help a lot at this stage. I am afraid that it would just break your system, and that is *not* a good idea.
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Thanks,

Sincerely,



Garold L. Johnson
dynalt@dynalt.com