@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
-@c Copyright (C) 1985,86,87,93,94,95,1997,2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+@c Copyright (C) 1985,86,87,93,94,95,1997,2000,2001
+@c Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
@node MS-DOS, Manifesto, Mac OS, Top
@appendix Emacs and MS-DOS
This section briefly describes the peculiarities of using Emacs under
the MS-DOS ``operating system'' (also known as ``MS-DOG''). If you
build Emacs for MS-DOS, the binary will also run on Windows 3.X, Windows
-NT, Windows 9X, or OS/2 as a DOS application; the information in this
-chapter applies for all of those systems, if you use an Emacs that was
-built for MS-DOS.
+NT, Windows 9X/ME, Windows 2000, or OS/2 as a DOS application; the
+information in this chapter applies for all of those systems, if you use
+an Emacs that was built for MS-DOS.
- Note that it is possible to build Emacs specifically for Windows NT or
-Windows 9X. If you do that, most of this chapter does not apply;
+ Note that it is possible to build Emacs specifically for Windows NT/2K
+or Windows 9X/ME. If you do that, most of this chapter does not apply;
instead, you get behavior much closer to what is documented in the rest
of the manual, including support for long file names, multiple frames,
scroll bars, mouse menus, and subprocesses. However, the section on
text files and binary files does still apply. There are also two
-sections at the end of this chapter which apply specifically for Windows
-NT and 9X.
+sections at the end of this chapter which apply specifically for the
+Windows version.
@menu
* Input: MS-DOS Input. Keyboard and mouse usage on MS-DOS.
following line into your @file{_emacs} file:
@smallexample
-;; Make the Enter key from the Numeric keypad act as C-j.
+;; @r{Make the @key{ENTER} key from the numeric keypad act as @kbd{C-j}.}
(define-key function-key-map [kp-enter] [?\C-j])
@end smallexample
of free DOS memory that is available to Emacs. Usually, up to 620KB of
text can be put into the clipboard, but this limit depends on the system
configuration and is lower if you run Emacs as a subprocess of
-another program. If the killed text does not fit, Emacs prints a
+another program. If the killed text does not fit, Emacs outputs a
message saying so, and does not put the text into the clipboard.
Null characters also cannot be put into the Windows clipboard. If the
killed text includes null characters, Emacs does not put such text into
-the clipboard, and prints in the echo area a message to that effect.
+the clipboard, and displays in the echo area a message to that effect.
@vindex dos-display-scancodes
The variable @code{dos-display-scancodes}, when non-@code{nil},
@code{list-faces-display} command (@pxref{Faces}) to see what colors and
faces are available and what they look like.
- The section @ref{MS-DOS and MULE}, later in this chapter, describes
-how Emacs displays glyphs and characters which aren't supported by the
+ @xref{MS-DOS and MULE}, later in this chapter, for information on
+how Emacs displays glyphs and characters that aren't supported by the
native font built into the DOS display.
@cindex cursor shape on MS-DOS
@code{default-frame-alist} (@pxref{Creating Frames}). The MS-DOS
terminal doesn't support a vertical-bar cursor, so the bar cursor is
horizontal, and the @code{@var{width}} parameter, if specified by the
-frame parameters, actually determines its height. As an extension,
-the bar cursor specification can include the starting scan line of the
-cursor as well as its width, like this:
+frame parameters, actually determines its height. For this reason,
+the @code{bar} and @code{hbar} cursor types produce the same effect on
+MS-DOS. As an extension, the bar cursor specification can include the
+starting scan line of the cursor as well as its width, like this:
@example
'(cursor-type bar @var{width} . @var{start})
@cindex file names under Windows 95/NT
@cindex long file names in DOS box under Windows 95/NT
- If you run Emacs as a DOS application under Windows 9X, you can
-turn on support for long file names. If you do that, Emacs doesn't
-truncate file names or convert them to lower case; instead, it uses the
-file names that you specify, verbatim. To enable long file name
-support, set the environment variable @env{LFN} to @samp{y} before
-starting Emacs. Unfortunately, Windows NT doesn't allow DOS programs to
-access long file names, so Emacs built for MS-DOS will only see their
-short 8+3 aliases.
+ If you run Emacs as a DOS application under Windows 9X, Windows ME, or
+Windows 2000, you can turn on support for long file names. If you do
+that, Emacs doesn't truncate file names or convert them to lower case;
+instead, it uses the file names that you specify, verbatim. To enable
+long file name support, set the environment variable @env{LFN} to
+@samp{y} before starting Emacs. Unfortunately, Windows NT doesn't allow
+DOS programs to access long file names, so Emacs built for MS-DOS will
+only see their short 8+3 aliases.
@cindex @env{HOME} directory under MS-DOS
MS-DOS has no notion of home directory, so Emacs on MS-DOS pretends
Printing commands, such as @code{lpr-buffer} (@pxref{Hardcopy}) and
@code{ps-print-buffer} (@pxref{PostScript}) can work in MS-DOS and
MS-Windows by sending the output to one of the printer ports, if a
-Unix-style @code{lpr} program is unavailable. The same Emacs
+Posix-style @code{lpr} program is unavailable. The same Emacs
variables control printing on all systems (@pxref{Hardcopy}), but in
some cases they have different default values on MS-DOS and
MS-Windows.
causes Windows to @dfn{capture} the LPT2 port and redirect the printed
material to the printer connected to the machine @code{joes_pc}.
After this command, setting @code{printer-name} to @code{"LPT2"}
-should send the printed material to the networked printer.
+should produce the hardcopy on the networked printer.
+
+ With some varieties of Windows network software, you can instruct
+Windows to capture a specific printer port such as @code{"LPT2"}, and
+redirect it to a networked printer via the @w{@code{Control
+Panel->Printers}} applet instead of @samp{net use}.
Some printers expect DOS codepage encoding of non-ASCII text, even
though they are connected to a Windows machine which uses a different
@cindex international support @r{(MS-DOS)}
Emacs on MS-DOS supports the same international character sets as it
-does on Unix and other platforms (@pxref{International}), including
+does on GNU, Unix and other platforms (@pxref{International}), including
coding systems for converting between the different character sets.
-However, due to incompatibilities between MS-DOS/MS-Windows and Unix,
-there are several DOS-specific aspects of this support that users should
+However, due to incompatibilities between MS-DOS/MS-Windows and other systems,
+there are several DOS-specific aspects of this support that you should
be aware of. This section describes these aspects.
@table @kbd
etc.
In contrast to X, which lets you use several fonts at the same time,
-MS-DOS doesn't allow use of several codepages in a single session.
-Instead, MS-DOS loads a single codepage at system startup, and you must
-reboot MS-DOS to change it@footnote{Normally, one particular codepage is
-burnt into the display memory, while other codepages can be installed by
-modifying system configuration files, such as @file{CONFIG.SYS}, and
-rebooting.}. Much the same limitation applies when you run DOS
+MS-DOS normally doesn't allow use of several codepages in a single
+session. MS-DOS was designed to load a single codepage at system
+startup, and require you to reboot in order to change
+it@footnote{Normally, one particular codepage is burnt into the display
+memory, while other codepages can be installed by modifying system
+configuration files, such as @file{CONFIG.SYS}, and rebooting. While
+third-party software is known to exist that allows to change the
+codepage without rebooting, we describe here how a stock MS-DOS system
+behaves.}. Much the same limitation applies when you run DOS
executables on other systems such as MS-Windows.
@cindex unibyte operation @r{(MS-DOS)}
@code{cp@var{nnn}} coding system at startup, it is normal for the mode
line on MS-DOS to begin with @samp{-DD\-}. @xref{Mode Line}.
Far-Eastern DOS terminals do not use the @code{cp@var{nnn}} coding
-systems, and thus their initial mode line looks like on Unix.
+systems, and thus their initial mode line looks like the Emacs default.
Since the codepage number also indicates which script you are using,
Emacs automatically runs @code{set-language-environment} to select the
columns on the screen, it is really still just a single character, and
all Emacs commands treat it as one.
-@vindex dos-unsupported-character-glyph
+@cindex IBM graphics characters (MS-DOS)
+@cindex box-drawing characters (MS-DOS)
+@cindex line-drawing characters (MS-DOS)
Not all characters in DOS codepages correspond to ISO 8859
characters---some are used for other purposes, such as box-drawing
-characters and other graphics. Emacs cannot represent these characters
-internally, so when you read a file that uses these characters, they are
-converted into a particular character code, specified by the variable
-@code{dos-unsupported-character-glyph}.
+characters and other graphics. Emacs maps these characters to two
+special character sets called @code{eight-bit-control} and
+@code{eight-bit-graphic}, and displays them as their IBM glyphs.
+However, you should be aware that other systems might display these
+characters differently, so you should avoid them in text that might be
+copied to a different operating system, or even to another DOS machine
+that uses a different codepage.
+@vindex dos-unsupported-character-glyph
Emacs supports many other characters sets aside from ISO 8859, but it
cannot display them on MS-DOS. So if one of these multibyte characters
appears in a buffer, Emacs on MS-DOS displays them as specified by the
mode and its variants do not work. Most Emacs features that use
asynchronous subprocesses also don't work on MS-DOS, including
Shell mode and GUD. When in doubt, try and see; commands that
-don't work print an error message saying that asynchronous processes
+don't work output an error message saying that asynchronous processes
aren't supported.
Compilation under Emacs with @kbd{M-x compile}, searching files with
Spell checking also works, by means of special support for synchronous
invocation of the @code{ispell} program. This is slower than the
-asynchronous invocation on Unix.
+asynchronous invocation on other platforms
Instead of the Shell mode, which doesn't work on MS-DOS, you can use
the @kbd{M-x eshell} command. This invokes the Eshell package that
-implements a Unix-like shell entirely in Emacs Lisp.
+implements a Posix-like shell entirely in Emacs Lisp.
By contrast, Emacs compiled as native Windows application
@strong{does} support asynchronous subprocesses. @xref{Windows
@samp{-s}, @samp{-t}, and @samp{-u}.
@node Windows Processes
-@section Subprocesses on Windows 95 and NT
+@section Subprocesses on Windows 9X/ME and Windows NT/2K
Emacs compiled as a native Windows application (as opposed to the DOS
version) includes full support for asynchronous subprocesses.
In the Windows version, synchronous and asynchronous subprocesses work
fine on both
-Windows 95 and Windows NT as long as you run only 32-bit Windows
+Windows 9X and Windows NT/2K as long as you run only 32-bit Windows
applications. However, when you run a DOS application in a subprocess,
you may encounter problems or be unable to run the application at all;
and if you run two DOS applications at the same time in two
subprocess should continue normally. However, if the second subprocess
is synchronous, Emacs itself will be hung until the first subprocess
finishes. If it will not finish without user input, then you have no
-choice but to reboot if you are running on Windows 95. If you are
-running on Windows NT, you can use a process viewer application to kill
+choice but to reboot if you are running on Windows 9X. If you are
+running on Windows NT/2K, you can use a process viewer application to kill
the appropriate instance of ntvdm instead (this will terminate both DOS
subprocesses).
-If you have to reboot Windows 95 in this situation, do not use the
+If you have to reboot Windows 9X in this situation, do not use the
@code{Shutdown} command on the @code{Start} menu; that usually hangs the
system. Instead, type @kbd{CTL-ALT-@key{DEL}} and then choose
@code{Shutdown}. That usually works, although it may take a few minutes