A good paractical way to use DOSBox.

For Windows 2000/XP users

Running old Jaguar tools on a new PC OS's suck!

I was a bit sick and tired of DOSBox's window
crashing every few compiles. I did a little reading
up in the docs and found out that DOSBox is much
more useful than I thought. Turns out that you
dont need to keep DOSBox running. In fact, you can
use a shortcut for it to call it to run a make
file such as a jaguar make file and exit when
finished.

Here is how.

1st:
For the remainder of this text the 'x' simply means
the drive you have installed your jag tool or DOSBox
apps in.

2nd:
Install DOSBox 0.73
It's the one I tried this with. It may work as well
with later or previous versions but I did not test so.

3rd:
run DOSBox and create and register a config file.
at the DOSBox prompt:

Z\:> config -writeconf <filename>.conf <enter>

This will create and registera custom DOSBox config file.
You can have as many of these as you want(as far as I can tell.)
So if your Jag project's name is GORF3D

Z\:> config -writeconf gorf3d.conf <enter>

then.....

exit <enter>

to leave DOSBox.

4th:
Now open the custom config file and look for this line
at the bottom of the file.

# Lines in this section will be run at startup.

add the following.

mount x x:\
x:\
jag directory

'jag' is a bat file you will create with the lines below.

create a text file named 'jag.bat'
Put the following lines in it.

@echo off
x:

set RDBRC=x:\JAGUAR\BIN\RDB.RC
set DBPATH=x:\JAGUAR\BIN
set ALNPATH=x:\JAGUAR\BIN'
set MACPATH=x:\JAGUAR\BIN'
set GCC_EXEC_PREFIX=x:/JAGUAR/BIN

set PATH=%PATH%;x:\JAGUAR\BIN;x:\JAGUAR\BIN\;x:\JAGUAR\INCLUDE;x:\JAGUAR\LIB;x:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.73

set TEMP=x:

cd n:\%1

nmake

pause

exit

Save it to your root jag directory

Now Make a shortcut for DOSBox.
(Right click the .EXE and click "Create Shortcut")

Now Right click the short cut and click 'Properties'.

Enter the following for "Target:"

"x:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.73\dosbox.exe" -conf gorf3d.conf -noconsole

Enter the following for Start In:

"x:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.73"

Obviously if your directory is different, simply substitute
it for the above. Click ok to save the short cut.

Now you have a shortcut you simply double click and can
compile with any make file(nmake for Jaguar) and then
will exit when done. This above example actually waits
for a keypress so you can see any error reports.

Simply follow this procedure for each project.
Remember that you must create and register a config
file for each project before DOSBox will recognize it.

You only need ONE 'jag.bat' file in your Jaguar root.
That will cover all config files.

That's about it guys. it's much less of a hassle and
one less open window on your desktop.