problem: extended ansi characters looking Greek

[sarbayo]

Hello,
A friend of mine has been using a Foxpro 2.6 application, custom written for his business operation, for the past 10 years or so. This is a DOS/text based application currently running under Win-98. Recently all the text menus that used lines (from the extended character set) to form a menu box or border around a text menu, has reverted to Cyrilic or Greek looking letters and symbols instead.
Being an old DOS programmer, I recognised this as the type of error we would get when a computer didn't have ANSI.SYS loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file, or if a printer wasn't setup correctly to display the extended character set and you did a "PRINT SCREEN".
Since I don't know Foxpro(v2.6) and it's running under Windows, I have no idea what may have caused it to start doing this nor how to correct it.
Additionally, he says that some data entry screens that were full screen are now greatly reduced in size so that they are only half screen in size and much too small to be able to see the data.
Any ideas on what this may be caused by and a solution to the problem ?
Thanks,
Steve

 

[Brak]

It might the the font that windows is using for the DOS window.

Different fonts utilize the upper ASCII slots differently, sometimes not at all.

This would also effect the size of items as well, as different fonts are different sizes.

So if nothing in the FOX code was changed then somehow the font being used by Windows for the DOS window got altered (either intentally or accidently).

Another solution you might try is to run the DOS program in full-screen mode. I think you might find that by switching to full-screen mode that the problem will go away.

Let us know what happens when you try these.


B"H
Brak

 

[bobmpalmer]

Line chrs in 2.5/2.6 apps used either the foxprint/foxfont fonts or MS Linedraw. Un less these are installed and specifically reference or available in the launch dir Windows will tend to use the nearest font it can. This issue also occurs on printing to screen if an unsupported printer driver is used.

Bob Palmer

http://www.resisystems.co.uk

The most common solution is H2O!

 

[cricket]

Check your codepage.

 

[TheRambler]

I would think your user changed Windows regional settings (control panel, regional settings, language). If restoring the original values is not an option, then consider the following:

What is the value of CODEPAGE in your config.fp file?
Use the DOS command CHCP to view the active code page.
Use FPD command CPCURRENT() to show you FoxPro's active code page.

The problem you described seems to arise when CHCP returns one value and CPCURRENT() returns another. In order to solve it, both must return the same.

You can either use CHCP nnn to change DOS code page or change CODEPAGE = nnn in the config.fp

 

[sarbayo]

Hey guys,
well,... I tried several things, none of which worked, then, as a final jesture, I decided to start uninstalling things on my friends computer.
The most recent thing installed was 'The Print Shop 20', so I began there.
After the uninstall I ran the Foxpro program,...and it ran without a flaw. No odd characters in place of the upper ascii characters.

So, the problem is an incompatibility between The Print Shop 20 and Foxpro-2.6.
Probably not worth trying to figure out what the source of problem is, so, I recommended that my friend find someone to port his Foxpro program and data over to MS-Access.
Thanks for your help.
Steve

 

[bobmpalmer]

Hmm

As I said in my prev post it is to do with the installed/registered fonts and it would'nt suprise me if Print Shop 20 installs loads of its own fonts. See the following:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;131943

I recommended that my friend find someone to port his Foxpro program and data over to MS-Access.

That appears to be a little backward step They would be better to go to VFP.

Bob Palmer

http://www.resisystems.co.uk

The most common solution is H2O!