Re: Word Perfect 5.1 under Free Dos

[Arnt Karlsen <arnt@c2i.net>]

On Thu, 24 May 2012 23:15:02 +0100, Roger wrote in message 
<[🔎] 20120524221502.GH22466@codelibre.net>:

> On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 04:25:23PM -0500, Charles Kroeger wrote:
> > Is this possible now? 
> > 
> > Installing Free Dos loading in a copy of Word Perfect 5.1
> > that can also use the system printer under CUPS?
> 
> You can certainly drive the system printer using DOSEMU.  However,
> how well this will work depends on what type of printer you're
> using.  If you're using a printer supported natively by WordPerfect,
> then you can just get DOSEMU to run "lpr -oraw" and it will get
> passed through without any processing, and behave pretty much as if
> it was hooked up directly to the parallel port (albeit without direct
> parallel port access--it's faked by the emulator).  However, if you
> have a modern printer which needs special CUPS drivers, which can't be
> driven by WordPerfect directly, you'll basically need to see if you
> can find a PostScript printer driver for WordPerfect to use--then it
> will send the PostScript directly to CUPS, which CUPS will happily
> print one any type of printer.  You might need to fiddle with
> timeouts--DOSEMU can't always tell when jobs end, so it ends the job
> after a delay.
> 
> WRT WordPerfect itself, can't see why it wouldn't work; I've run
> plenty of software in DOSEMU without trouble.  If FreeDOS doesn't
> work, then try a copy of "real" MS-DOS, PC-DOS or DR-DOS.

..and it probably doesn't need real hardware either, run it 
in a virtual machine and tell us how it worked for you. :o)

-- 
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt Karlsen
...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
  Scenarios always come in sets of three: 
  best case, worst case, and just in case.