

Re: Various virtual machines compared

Dear Harry
I have already tried virtually all the possible options on various version of Tame and none work for me. I think it is a problem with the screen virtualisation that Tame uses. I have discussed it with the author in the past and he appears to have been aware of the limitation but didn't appear to find a solution. Cursor movement is fine for scrolling when the movement is assigned to a single key. When a key combination is needed to active it, then there is an insupportable time lag. I use various key combinations for different cursor jumps.


On 26/01/2013 15:03, Harry Binswanger wrote:

I don't know what keys you are using for cursor movement but I have
found that you cannot use any key combination for cursor movement in
Tame. I always use Ctrl-Left Arrow to jump left one word. This has
never worked properly in Tame but will work if you program the same
movement to a singe key such as left-arrow on the number keypad. I
never found a solution for this in spite of some exchanges with the

Paul Breeze

Here are some relevant lines from my customization files, if you feel
like blind experimentation. This from 5.1 Pre-release 9, C:\My
Documents\Tame 5.1\XyWrite.app.tam


   ;;* Change repeat rates
; /KeyGroupDef GroupName=Text      RepeatRate = 45 ; rate is in
chars per secon
; /KeyGroupDef GroupName=LeftRight1   RepeatRate = 60 ; left/right cursor

   ;; Also move keys to a different repeat rate group
; /KeyGroupDef GroupName=LeftRight1   IncludeChar='^J' ; Note hat
ctl-J is XY keycode 289 with BIOS, 36 if not BIOS mode
; /KeyGroupDef GroupName=UpDown1    IncludeChar='^V', '^T'

; /KeyGroupDef GroupName = Action
; /KeyGroupDef GroupName = Control
   ;; Use the following for keys that:
   ;;  - Do not produce a BIOS scan code for DOS
   ;;  - Are tagged with NI in the KBD file

 /KeyGroupDef GroupName = SysRepeat
   Channel=WinMessage RepeatRate=-1

;;  Keys that do not produce a BIOS scan code for DOS
     IncludeScan=#27   ;** ';' key with ctl or alt

;;  Example of key tagged with NI in the KBD file
     IncludeScan=#53   ;** DEl

Does anyone know what language this is written in?
On 26/01/2013 05:07, Jon P wrote:
My VirtualPC 2007 balked at Win 3.11 and DOS 6. Wouldn't run them.
That might be my installation error. But when I did get Windows 98
running under it, communication with Windows 7 was agonizingly
slow--something Ed Mendelson also complains about with his
Wordperfect DOS workarounds. Whereas XP Mode is instant.

I see why Harry wants Tame. It makes XY's display a lot more flexible
with fonts, window sizes, number of lines onscreen and other
customizations we weren't expecting back in the DOS days.

I'm still having intermittent cursor arrow-key movement problems and
am trying to figure out what triggers them, but otherwise Tame under
XP Mode runs smoothly for me.

Jon Pareles

From: "Kari Eveli" 
Subject: Re: Various virtual machines compared
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:38:21 +0200

This may be. But why try to "Tame" an unwilling Windows
version, when you could run DOS under a virtual machine
without any need for it? After all, DOS does not need to be
tamed. The DOS/Win 3.11 w/DOS boxes under VirtualPC works
(under XP 32-bit at least) without any taming and just as a
dedicated DOS/Win 3.11 machine would.