APL - Cannot get APL characters

Author

Cannot get APL characters

phdfromic@yahoo.com

2005-11-14, 6:56 pm

I have installed APL*PLUS 11 on my Dell Dimension 4700, XP Pro. I
cannot get the APL characters to display. Using the TEXT keyboard,
for example, the Alt-[ key, which behaves correctly as left arrow,
actually displays as a spade.

Can anyone suggest how to get the correct display ?

AA2e72E

2005-11-15, 3:55 am

I think you need to run APLFONT.COM in your batch file before running the
exe.

phdfromic@yahoo.com

2005-11-15, 6:55 pm

AA2e72E wrote:
> I think you need to run APLFONT.COM in your batch file before running the
> exe.

Did that. Didn't help.

Is there a specific ISO character page that can be invoked ?

brian.b.mcguinness@lmco.com

2005-11-15, 6:55 pm

phdfromic@yahoo.com wrote:
> AA2e72E wrote:
>
> Did that. Didn't help.
>
> Is there a specific ISO character page that can be invoked ?

In addition to loading the font you also have to be running in full
screen mode,
not in a window. Otherwise the APL font won;t be used. I forget if
there's
anything else; I haven't set this up in a while.

--- Brian

phdfromic@yahoo.com

2005-11-15, 6:55 pm

brian.b.mcguinness@lmco.com wrote:
> phdfromic@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> In addition to loading the font you also have to be running in full
> screen mode,
> not in a window. Otherwise the APL font won;t be used. I forget if
> there's
> anything else; I haven't set this up in a while.
>
> --- Brian
Full screen makes no difference.

Paul Houle

2005-11-15, 6:55 pm

Try installing a DOS box font containing STSC APL glyphs, and run APL in a
window.
That's what I do; it's easy and uncomplicated.
It's explained -- and a font is available -- here:

http://www.paulhoule.com/stscfon

....Paul Houle

<phdfromic@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1132012497.775426.220110@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I have installed APL*PLUS 11 on my Dell Dimension 4700, XP Pro. I
> cannot get the APL characters to display. Using the TEXT keyboard,
> for example, the Alt-[ key, which behaves correctly as left arrow,
> actually displays as a spade.
>
> Can anyone suggest how to get the correct display ?
>

AA2e72E

2005-11-16, 3:55 am

APLFONT is run with switches to indicate screen size: unfortunately I no
longer remember the details. I baguely recollect that to remove the font,
the switch is -r. How did you get to dull screen mode, using Ctrl + Enter?

Musashi

2005-11-16, 6:55 pm

Do it like this:

1. make a full dos box screen (alt-enter)

2. 80max.com <enter>

3 aplfont.com <enter>

4. Run your APL plus.

The APL font should now work.

The above works for APLSE which is APL Plus 10 (or so I've been told),
so I'm hoping it will also work for you v.11.

Jim Pannozzi

<phdfromic@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1132012497.775426.220110@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I have installed APL*PLUS 11 on my Dell Dimension 4700, XP Pro. I
> cannot get the APL characters to display. Using the TEXT keyboard,
> for example, the Alt-[ key, which behaves correctly as left arrow,
> actually displays as a spade.
>
> Can anyone suggest how to get the correct display ?
>

phdfromic@yahoo.com

2005-11-16, 6:55 pm

You pointed me to a document titled "STSC (c) APL Dos box bitmap fonts"
It contained a link to http://home.comcast.net/~paul.l.jackson/APL/,
which refers to a file named 'stscapl.fon' but it is not on the links
provided

It also has a link to Free APL, together with a few tools for using
that version.
i tried it, and it still does not give me all the APL characters.

It seems to be addressing my problem, but I don't see where the stuff
is.

Paul Houle wrote:[color=darkred]
> Try installing a DOS box font containing STSC APL glyphs, and run APL in a
> window.
> That's what I do; it's easy and uncomplicated.
> It's explained -- and a font is available -- here:
>
> http://www.paulhoule.com/stscfon
>
> ...Paul Houle
>
> <phdfromic@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1132012497.775426.220110@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Paul Houle

2005-11-16, 6:55 pm

I am not sure about the state of Paul Jackson's pages, fonts, etc.
The link to paul.l.jackson is there only for reference.
I no longer use his fonts since I came up with my own.

On my page (http://www.paulhoule.com/stscfon) I make the APL DOS box fonts directly available.
There is a link at the bottom of my page to them ("click here to download stscfon.zip").
It should take you to the file http://paulhoule.com/stscfon/stscfon.zip that holds the .fon file.
The link works for me.

....Paul Houle

<phdfromic@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:1132165225.293481.148540@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> You pointed me to a document titled "STSC (c) APL Dos box bitmap fonts"
> It contained a link to http://home.comcast.net/~paul.l.jackson/APL/,
> which refers to a file named 'stscapl.fon' but it is not on the links
> provided
>
> It also has a link to Free APL, together with a few tools for using
> that version.
> i tried it, and it still does not give me all the APL characters.
>
> It seems to be addressing my problem, but I don't see where the stuff
> is.
>
>
> Paul Houle wrote:
>

phdfromic@yahoo.com

2005-11-16, 6:55 pm

Yes ! Thank you !!

And thanks to everyone else who tried.

Paul Houle wrote:[color=darkred]
> I am not sure about the state of Paul Jackson's pages, fonts, etc.
> The link to paul.l.jackson is there only for reference.
> I no longer use his fonts since I came up with my own.
>
> On my page (http://www.paulhoule.com/stscfon) I make the APL DOS box fonts directly available.
> There is a link at the bottom of my page to them ("click here to download stscfon.zip").
> It should take you to the file http://paulhoule.com/stscfon/stscfon.zip that holds the .fon file.
> The link works for me.
>
> ...Paul Houle
>
> <phdfromic@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:1132165225.293481.148540@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Doug White

2005-11-18, 6:56 pm

Keywords:[color=darkred]
><phdfromic@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>news:1132012497.775426.220110@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

I just ran into exactly the same problem at work, where they "upgraded"
my computer to a Dell Optiplex GX620 with XP Pro. My previous Dell
with W2K worked fine, and my IBM laptop at home with XP is also fine.
All of a sudden, I can't get APL fonts to work. I haven't finished
experimenting, but I suspect a defect in the graphics card the machine
came with. If I go to Settings-Control Panel-Display, I get:

Dell 2001FP (Digital) on 128MB ATI Radeon X600 SE

I'd be very curious if the original poster or anyone else has this video
setup and can or cannot get APLFONT.COM to work. I've already talked to
the IT guys, and they are willing to extract the video card from the old
machine & swap it to see if that fixes things.

Doug White

Don Kelly

2005-11-19, 3:55 am

I have the same problem with XP - it is not the computer (mine has an
Athlon 64 3800 processor and an Asus (geforce 6600 ) card with Nvidia
drivers.
With 98SE (admittedly on an older machine) I had no problem in a full
window. In that I setup a batch file - both the bat file and apl were in
full screen mode:

aplfont
apl (switches as desired)
aplfont-
^c
This doesn't work with XP even using 98 or 95 emulation and the suggested
aplfont download hasn't cured this. That is, as far as I can see,
aplfont.com doesn't work.

If you succeed, please let me know

--

Don Kelly @shawcross.ca
remove the X to answer
----------------------------
"Doug White" <gwhite@alum.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:UrWdnRH-tqDJ7-PeRVn-jA@rcn.net...
> Keywords:
>
> I just ran into exactly the same problem at work, where they "upgraded"
> my computer to a Dell Optiplex GX620 with XP Pro. My previous Dell
> with W2K worked fine, and my IBM laptop at home with XP is also fine.
> All of a sudden, I can't get APL fonts to work. I haven't finished
> experimenting, but I suspect a defect in the graphics card the machine
> came with. If I go to Settings-Control Panel-Display, I get:
>
> Dell 2001FP (Digital) on 128MB ATI Radeon X600 SE
>
> I'd be very curious if the original poster or anyone else has this video
> setup and can or cannot get APLFONT.COM to work. I've already talked to
> the IT guys, and they are willing to extract the video card from the old
> machine & swap it to see if that fixes things.
>
> Doug White

Paul Houle

2005-11-19, 3:55 am

Again, try installing an enhanced DOS box font (containing STSC APL glyphs),
and run APL in a
window. It's explained -- and a font is available -- here:
http://www.paulhoule.com/stscfon
You'll get better looking characters.

Note: the above will have no effect on full-screen mode; for that you must
reprogram the video card's character generator, i.e. APLFONT.COM. Not sure
if XP allows that kind of direct hardware access.

Paul Houle

"Don Kelly" <dhky@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:Ufyff.534762$tl2.169597@pd7tw3no...
>I have the same problem with XP - it is not the computer (mine has an
>Athlon 64 3800 processor and an Asus (geforce 6600 ) card with Nvidia
>drivers.
> With 98SE (admittedly on an older machine) I had no problem in a full
> window. In that I setup a batch file - both the bat file and apl were in
> full screen mode:
>
> aplfont
> apl (switches as desired)
> aplfont-
> ^c
> This doesn't work with XP even using 98 or 95 emulation and the suggested
> aplfont download hasn't cured this. That is, as far as I can see,
> aplfont.com doesn't work.
>
> If you succeed, please let me know
>
> --
>
> Don Kelly @shawcross.ca
> remove the X to answer
> ----------------------------
> "Doug White" <gwhite@alum.mit.edu> wrote in message
> news:UrWdnRH-tqDJ7-PeRVn-jA@rcn.net...
>
>

Doug White

2005-11-19, 6:55 pm

Keywords:
In article <437ec58b$0$9206$9a6e19ea@unlimited.newshosting.com>, "Paul Houle" <asmguru@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>Again, try installing an enhanced DOS box font (containing STSC APL glyphs),
>and run APL in a
>window. It's explained -- and a font is available -- here:
>http://www.paulhoule.com/stscfon
>You'll get better looking characters.

I have the APL characters working in windowed mode in XP on my IBM
laptop, but I also use the APLFONT.COM successfully to get the fonts in
full screen mode. I prefer to work in the fullscreen mode for most
stuff. Some graphics doesn't behave well in the windowed mode.

>Note: the above will have no effect on full-screen mode; for that you must
>reprogram the video card's character generator, i.e. APLFONT.COM. Not sure
>if XP allows that kind of direct hardware access.

XP _can_ do this, but some XP systems don't seem to work. It isn't clear
if this is some weird setting in XP, or a graphics adapter issue.
Downloading fonts for a DOS window certainly isn't a common task these
days, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some newer video hardware just
don't support it.

Doug White

>Paul Houle
>
>"Don Kelly" <dhky@shaw.ca> wrote in message
>news:Ufyff.534762$tl2.169597@pd7tw3no...
>
>

Musashi

2005-11-19, 6:55 pm

Just a crazy idea but try setting the default font of the
dos box (right button click the menu bar and select 'Properties"
and try setting/unsetting the selection "Raster fonts"
and see if that has any affect.

After making a change to the setting, start APL from
that dos box and see if the presence or absence of the
Raster font setting did anything.

Jim

"Doug White" <gwhite@alum.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:TaKdnU1alqNLouLeRVn-oQ@rcn.net...[color=darkred]
> Keywords:
> In article <437ec58b$0$9206$9a6e19ea@unlimited.newshosting.com>, "Paul
> Houle" <asmguru@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I have the APL characters working in windowed mode in XP on my IBM
> laptop, but I also use the APLFONT.COM successfully to get the fonts in
> full screen mode. I prefer to work in the fullscreen mode for most
> stuff. Some graphics doesn't behave well in the windowed mode.
>
>
> XP _can_ do this, but some XP systems don't seem to work. It isn't clear
> if this is some weird setting in XP, or a graphics adapter issue.
> Downloading fonts for a DOS window certainly isn't a common task these
> days, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some newer video hardware just
> don't support it.
>
> Doug White
>

Doug White

2005-11-20, 9:55 pm

Keywords:
In article <UrWdnRH-tqDJ7-PeRVn-jA@rcn.net>, gwhite@alum.mit.edu (Doug White) wrote:
>Keywords:
>
>I just ran into exactly the same problem at work, where they "upgraded"
>my computer to a Dell Optiplex GX620 with XP Pro. My previous Dell
>with W2K worked fine, and my IBM laptop at home with XP is also fine.
>All of a sudden, I can't get APL fonts to work. I haven't finished
>experimenting, but I suspect a defect in the graphics card the machine
>came with. If I go to Settings-Control Panel-Display, I get:
>
>Dell 2001FP (Digital) on 128MB ATI Radeon X600 SE
>
>I'd be very curious if the original poster or anyone else has this video
>setup and can or cannot get APLFONT.COM to work. I've already talked to
>the IT guys, and they are willing to extract the video card from the old
>machine & swap it to see if that fixes things.

I also have a new Dell "Dimension E310" at home that just bought for my
two girls to use for homework (and hopefully learning APL). I just
copied my APL files over from my XP laptop, and the APLFONT.COM doesn't
seem to work on this machine either. The graphics is done by a chipset
on the motherboard. Control Panel-Settings-Display reports it as:
Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset

I have a nasty feeling that either Dell has done something odd in their
setup of their machines, or the newer video adapters are breaking the
VESA rules and won't work.

I would really like to get to the bottom of this. Sometime this w

,
the IT guys at work will swap in my old video card into my new machine.
If that doesn't fix it, it means Dell has done something odd (possibly in
the BIOS?) that disables downloading fonts. If it works, it suggests
that there are at least two flavors of video adapters out there that
don't work.

Doug White

Don Kelly

2005-11-21, 9:55 pm

----------------------------
"Doug White" <gwhite@alum.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:ArSdnXlmSpQ6shzeRVn-qA@rcn.net...
> Keywords:
> In article <UrWdnRH-tqDJ7-PeRVn-jA@rcn.net>, gwhite@alum.mit.edu (Doug
> White) wrote:
>
> I also have a new Dell "Dimension E310" at home that just bought for my
> two girls to use for homework (and hopefully learning APL). I just
> copied my APL files over from my XP laptop, and the APLFONT.COM doesn't
> seem to work on this machine either. The graphics is done by a chipset
> on the motherboard. Control Panel-Settings-Display reports it as:
> Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset
>
> I have a nasty feeling that either Dell has done something odd in their
> setup of their machines, or the newer video adapters are breaking the
> VESA rules and won't work.
>
> I would really like to get to the bottom of this. Sometime this w

,
> the IT guys at work will swap in my old video card into my new machine.
> If that doesn't fix it, it means Dell has done something odd (possibly in
> the BIOS?) that disables downloading fonts. If it works, it suggests
> that there are at least two flavors of video adapters out there that
> don't work.
>
> Doug White

Thanks to Doug Houle, I now have apl glyphs witn STSC aplplus version 11. I
had no problem with this under win98SE- using the aplfont.
I set the properties of the "command prompt " to "maximised" and an stsc Apl
font 18x12. I also set up alp.exe with font as auto and to run in a window.
So far, I haven't set any other parameters such as extended memory.
I wrote a file apl.bat placed in the directory in which the dos box opens

cd\location of apl
apl.exe
exit

All is fine until I do some boxg graphics - after which the window reverts
to full screen 640x480 without the apl glyphs.

I will have to explore more but it is unlikely that it is your
adapter/monitor.
--

Don Kelly @shawcross.ca
remove the X to answer

Doug White

2005-11-22, 9:55 pm

Keywords:
In article <o0wgf.570373$tl2.331892@pd7tw3no>, "Don Kelly" <dhky@shawcross.ca> wrote:
>----------------------------
>"Doug White" <gwhite@alum.mit.edu> wrote in message
>news:ArSdnXlmSpQ6shzeRVn-qA@rcn.net...
>
>Thanks to Doug Houle, I now have apl glyphs witn STSC aplplus version 11. I
>had no problem with this under win98SE- using the aplfont.
>I set the properties of the "command prompt " to "maximised" and an stsc Apl
>font 18x12. I also set up alp.exe with font as auto and to run in a window.
>So far, I haven't set any other parameters such as extended memory.
>I wrote a file apl.bat placed in the directory in which the dos box opens
>
>cd\location of apl
>apl.exe
>exit
>
>All is fine until I do some boxg graphics - after which the window reverts
>to full screen 640x480 without the apl glyphs.
>
>I will have to explore more but it is unlikely that it is your
>adapter/monitor.

The more I think about it, the less likely it is even anything as fancy
as the VESA standard. The software doesn't use any special DOS drivers,
and the font download process dates back to EGA days. The problem is
with the standard VGA adapter interface.

I checked my one year old IBM laptop (which works fine) and it uses an
ATI Radeon video system. The new Dell at work also uses and ATI Radeon
(different version, but presumably a similar video system), and it won't
accept the fonts. This supports my notion that Dell has managed to break
something. I'm going to contact ATI to see if they have any ideas.

Sometime next w

, the IT guys at work are going to open up my old Dell
and swap the video card. If the old video card and driver don't work in
the new machine, Dell has definitely busted something.

Doug White

Sponsored Links