China DOS Union

To All:

My XP is the 2002 SP1 version. But whether I go into COMMAND or CMD, after running old 16-bit programs, Chinese cannot be displayed. For example, DEBUG and the like.

Does anyone have a solution?

[ Last edited by willsort on 2005-9-27 at 19:12 ]

I saw this method in a newspaper: to use turbo c under xp, enter in cmd
start/separate path\program name
separate means opening up a separate space in memory to run the 16-bit program
there is also a parameter, shared, which starts a 16-bit program in shared memory space; I haven't tried that one
Give it a try

Re ssclose:

Many thanks for the reply!

I have tried this method, but overall, it is not really satisfactory.

I wrote a simple test batch file:

@echo off
echo Chinese display
pause
debug
echo display Chinese

I made a number of changes to the DEBUG line.
ECHO Q>QUIT.ASD
DEBUG 〈 QUIT.ASD
If I don't use START, there are problems with Chinese; if I do use START, there are even more problems. It seems the pipe symbol has a big effect on START, or rather START has a big effect on the pipe symbol. In addition, opening a new window, waiting for the program to execute, and using all those parameters made my XP reboot three times.

Looks like I'd better just stick honestly with my own 98 and DOS6.

Re Wengier:

Very regrettably, I can't consider your method. Just to run a simple batch file, I'd need to run a Chinese character support system; even without considering compatibility issues, the cost is too high.

Then you'd better just stick honestly with a pure DOS system. But neither 98 nor DOS6 is very practical. MS-DOS 7.10 still has the best compatibility and is also the newest; after all, it's already 2004 now, not 1993-1994 when DOS6 came out!

What a pity!

Can only say it's a pity. Hopefully in the future someone can make some kind of patch.
But you could also try it through a virtual machine.

To All:

　　In some tests not long ago, I found a temporary workaround:

　　1. Enter XP's DOS console through command, then use graftabl 936; at that point Chinese can be used in 16-bit programs;
　　2. Enter through cmd, then use chcp 437 and graftabl 936 respectively; at that point Chinese can also be used in 16-bit programs;

　　Also, testing mem in cmd only shows blank lines, but once you use debug in it and exit, mem returns to normal. Other similar old 16-bit DOS programs have the same problem; that is to say, mem needs a certain environment, but only by calling a 16-bit program like Debug can that environment be activated. It is very likely the 16-bit sub-environment of ntvdm, in other words the environment activated by command. But why mem itself does not activate it, and some other programs don't either, is another question.

　　Also, what exactly are the differences and connections between the 16-bit environment and the 32-bit environment? From testing, the following differences are known so far; everyone can look for more:

　　1. Code page: ｃｍｄ is 936, ｃｏｍｍａｎｄ is 437;
　　2. Environment variables: ｃｍｄ has more than ｃｏｍｍａｎｄ, but ｃｏｍｍａｎｄ has the sound card ｂｌａｓｔｅｒ;
　　3. Startup configuration: ｃｏｍｍａｎｄ enables ｃｏｎｆｉｇ．ｎｔ and ａｕｔｏｅｘｅｃ．ｎｔ;
　　4. Shell depth: closing ｃｏｍｍａｎｄ gives a prompt that it cannot be ended; only after using ｅｘｉｔ to leave one level of shell can it be closed normally; ｃｍｄ does not have this problem;
　　5. Window title: ｃｍｄ is 命令提示符, while ｃｏｍｍａｎｄ is Ｃｏｍｍａｎｄ　Ｐｒｏｍｐｔ;

[ Last edited by willsort on 2005-9-27 at 19:13 ]

Ｔｏ　Ａｌｌ：

　　Interestingly, for some unknown reason recently, when I enter ｃｍｄ in “Run” to start the command line, the code page changes to English 437, and running ｍｅｍ no longer has the blank-line flashing problem either. But the version ＬＯＧＯ shown at startup is still XP, only now displayed in English, not the ＤＯＳ version shown by ｃｏｍｍａｎｄ. And even if I enter ｃｍｄ．ｅｘｅ or ｃ：＼ｗｉｎｄｏｗｓ＼ｓｙｓｔｅｍ３２＼ｃｍｄ．ｅｘｅ, the result is the same.

　　But if I click the “Command Prompt” shortcut in the Accessories menu under Start, or directly click ｃｍｄ．ｅｘｅ under ｓｙｓｔｅｍ３２, the code page displays Chinese normally.

Title: C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
Microsoft Windows XP
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
The command line window obtained by entering ｃｍｄ in “Run”

Title: 命令提示符
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
Microsoft Windows XP
(C) 版权所有 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
The command line window obtained by directly clicking the shortcut

Title: Command Prompt
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
Microsoft(R) Windows DOS
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1990-2001.
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
The command line window obtained by entering ｃｏｍｍａｎｄ in “Run”

Please note that their copyright date ranges are also different.

[ Last edited by willsort on 2005-9-27 at 19:15 ]

Re All:

As for the code page issue in post #10, it has been verified that it is caused by some item in the registry being modified, as follows:

"CodePage"=dword:000001b5

The 1b5 there is the hexadecimal notation for 437 (OEM United States).

As for the problem mentioned in post #9 where executing mem in cmd shows blank lines, the specific behavior is as follows:

If you enter the command line window by running CMD or by clicking the Command Prompt in the menu, then directly execute mem or some other older 16-bit DOS program, it will immediately switch the chcp code page to 437. This switching action clears the screen, then shows 11 blank lines. But if you directly execute mem>mem.txt, the switching action still occurs, only the number of blank lines displayed becomes 1, while mem.txt shows 11 lines of text.

Invalid keyboard code specified


655360 bytes total conventional memory
655360 bytes available to MS-DOS
633664 largest executable program size

1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
941056 bytes available XMS memory
MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

Therefore the following guesses can be made:

1. Those 11 blank lines in the former case are exactly the contents of mem.txt.
2. The Invalid sentence on the first line of mem.txt indicates that the program uses a Keyboard Code incompatible with the current Windows, and according to testing, no 16-bit DOS program has yet been found that can solve this compatibility problem.
3. The forced Code Page switch may originate from this invalid Keyboard Code.
4. And since after the code page switch the program output still cannot be displayed normally, that means the program output is still not compatible with this code page, while DEBUG can make adjustments.
5. According to the hint from Wengier in http://www.cn-dos.net/forum/viewthread.php?tid=1019, after switching the command line window to full screen and then executing programs like mem, the problem pointed out in guess 4 will not appear, so this kind of switching should have performed a corresponding adjustment action just like the piece of code in debug.

[ Last edited by willsort on 2005-10-15 at 12:32 ]

Originally posted by willsort at 2005-9-27 19:03:
Ｔｏ　Ａｌｌ：

　　Interestingly, for some unknown reason recently, when I enter ｃｍｄ in “Run” to start the command line, the code page changes to English 437, and running ｍ..

That was caused by you changing ｃｍｄ's properties! If you can change the properties back to normal, there won't be any problem!

Re qwe1234567:

Then try modifying cmd's code page property manually instead of through the registry, and make that change apply to all command line windows opened afterward. I could never find where the manual option for this change was. But after deleting that registry branch, the command line window had already returned to normal.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry! After I made this post and went to look again, I unexpectedly found this option entry.

After opening the command line window, press Alt+Space, D in sequence to enter the “Console Window Properties” dialog box, then on the “Options” tab adjust the “Default code page”. I used to always press Alt+Space, D, but the result was always entering the “C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe” Properties dialog box, where the code page cannot be adjusted.

However, this option modifies the code page for all consoles, and the corresponding registry branch is:

"CodePage"=dword:000003a8

As for the original , I don't know how it was created.


[ Last edited by willsort on 2005-10-15 at 12:50 ]

Another way is to write a REG file and import it whenever CMD has problems!

chcp 437>nul&graftabl 936>nul

http://www.cn-dos.net/forum/viewthread.php?tid=26795

Brother WillSort really was amazing!!! Miss him ing...