1. Finished - <Program Name> DOS box
To the person who has that annoying "Finished - <Program Name>" box
sticking around:
I think the problem here is just the usual behavior of running a DOS box
under windows. When done it will just quit and change the title to
"Finished - <Program Name>" and wait for someone to hit the "X" button in
the UR corner. I run into this all the time when adding programs to
network users login procedures. (Well I used to, until I started writing
as a bound Euphoria win32 app!!) I don't want that DOS box hanging around.
The way to make it behave differently is with a PIF file. Win 95/98
automatically generates these when you run a DOS program from Windows.
Here's how you can make one yourself...
1) Suppose you have a DOS prompt open in Windows 95/98. Of course youdo,
because you've been working on your DOS app, right? Type this command
(without the quotes):
"start ."
Don't forget the period! If you read that aloud, it would read "Start dot."
2) An explorer window will come up, with a listing of the current directory
you have open in the DOS window.
3) Right click on a blank space in the window, and from the menu that pops
up, select "New shortcut"
4) You will be asked for two pieces of info: a) the name of the shortcut,
and b) the command line. For the name, enter whatever you want. For the
program command line in the next window, enter "EX killerapp.ex" or
"killerapp.exe" if you're using the registered version, where killerapp is
your program name.
6) OK, so now, you should see a shortcut to your program in the window. If
not, either my instructions are hosed, or you've done something wrong. Go
back to step 1. Note, if this window is on a Network drive, you'll have to
hit F5 to refresh the window in order to see the new file.
7) Almost there. Right-click on the shortcut you just created and click
properties. There will be an unchecked box labeled "close window on exit."
You should check this box and click OK. You can also change the icon, and
some other stuff in here...
8) You're done. Now if you double-click the shortcut, (or the program
itself if you've setup .ex programs to be associated with ex.exe in the
registry), your program will automatically close that DOS window when it is
finished.
Note, this is just one way to do get the shortcut created. If you're
making a shortcut to a bound .exe file, you could do this a lot quicker,
but not knowing whether you had a bound .exe, I outlined a method that
should work either way...
--Ted
