I still have to maintain code for an old embedded computer running DOS. I need to run Borland Pascal 7.0 (BP7) in a DOS box under Windows 2000 SP4. It works just fine under Virtual PC on my G4 iBook so I know it can be done in a virtual environment. Under Parallels (build 1848) the mouse isn't able to select the menu items and if the menu items are selected using Alt-<something> then the response moving between menu items is very slow and "ntvdm.exe" is taking 99% of the CPU time. Anyone been able to get this type of program working under Parallels?
To elaborate on what was said before... There is a program called DOSBox, which is a MSDOS emulator that runs under Mac. It is free, and runs every DOS program I've ever encountered. (Even some of my old ASM codes that make direct BIOS IOs) This program is not the "DOS Box" that is included in windows... Download it here
Thanks for clarifying my too-brief message... there is a DOSBOX version available for Windows in addition to Linux, OSX, etc., so that's immediately what I thought they were referring to. On second thought, you're right - they're probably not.
As a clarification by "DOS Box" I meant "cmd.exe" that is part of Windows 2000. I tried the "DOSBox" download and it doesn't work either. You can sort of activate menu items with the mouse, but the "highlighted" area that it supposed to indicate where the mouse position is not where the mouse cursor is actually pointing at! From there on it just goes downhill with a forced shutdown of the VM required to regain control. The BP7 IDE uses a framework that Borland called "TurboVision" or some such nonsense. That's probably why it doesn't work.
More Info I decided to try to run the command line compiler (BPC.EXE) within a "CMD.EXE" dos emulation window. It works, but after it is done with compiling and linking every time you enter a key in the dos emulation window the Core2 usage jumps up and stays that way for several seconds but the "Windows Task Manager" doesn't show anything but the idle process taking CPU time. It would seem that Parallels itself is engaged in some futile exercise. On the bright side, my FTDI based USB-Serial convertor works great much to my surprise. Even on the extremely picky Microchip "Picstart Plus" programmer which didn't work on Virtual PC on the PowerPC MAC.
Finally updated from a last summer version to 3188 and found out that other old 16 bit programs (such as a Windows 3.1 version of Autosketch) would crash Parallels with VT-x enabled. I've never noticed any real performance differences with VT-x enabled or disabled so I think the easiest thing to do is to leave it disabled.
