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The TFQA graphics programs (KMPLT, DIVPLT, LDPLT, BAYES, SCAT, and FORD) do not run well under Windows XP (printscreen doesn't work) and do not run at all directly under Windows 7 and Vista. They can be made to run well using DosBox a freeware emulator of 16 bit Windows. It is a bit of extra work to set up but does work fine. You only need to use this for the graphics programs--KMPLT, DIVPLT, LDPLT, BAYES, SCAT, and FORD not any of the others.

Downloading DosBox (freeware)

Go to http://www.dosbox.com/
Click on the number next to the "Latest Version" below the heading at the upper right
Click on the "Windows" line within the DosBox section of the Download page to download the DOSBOX setup file
Save the downloaded setup file, e.g., DosBox0.74-win32-installer.exe someplace handy like the desktop
Find the downloaded file wherever you saved it and double click on it to perform the installation, responding to the obvious prompts as it proceeds--this takes only a few seconds. (You will probably need administrator privileges to do this, as with other installations.
Close the Install window by clicking on the "Close" button.
You will now have a DosBox icon on your desktop and a DosBox folder on your Start menu.

Configuring DosBox

From the start menu, all programs, click on the DOSBOX folder, and you will see within it a Optiions (Configuration in earlier DosBox versions) folder. Click on that, and within that you will see "DosBox 0.74 Options" ("Edit Configuration" in earlier DosBox versions. That will open a window with the configuration file.
Scroll to the very bottom of the file and paste in the following text exactly as shown

rem Set up to run TFQA
mount t c:\progra~1\tfqa
mount u yourdatafolder
path t:\
u:

In the 3rd line, for yourdatafolder substitute the path--using SHORT FILE NAMES--to the folder on your hard drive containing the data you want to analyze. (You don't need to know this but if you want to understand more see the Wikpedia article about short file names). Now, this gets a little geeky but is not really hard. The short file name can have no spaces or special characters and each part of the path can have no more than 8 characters followed by an optional period and 3 character extension. The longer files names that are used in all the more recent versions of windows all have short file name equivalents. What you need to do is figure out the short file name associated with the folder that has your data files.

In Windows 7, probably Vista, and Windows XP the easiest way to do this is use Windows Explorer (Start>All Programs>Accessories)to navigate to the folder that has your files. Then hold down the shift key and right click on the folder name in the folder tree on the left of the window. This will open up a black command window with a prompt showing you the current folder's path followed by a >, e.g., in XP it might be something like C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\My Documents\your folder or in Windows 7 something like C:\Users\Your Name\Documents\Your Folder.

Now here is the trick. In the command widow at the prompt type command (not cmd) and press Enter. The prompt in the command window changes to the short file name version, in my case, I see in XP:

c:\My Documents\Course\Intrasite>command
C:\MYDOCU~1\COURSE\INTRAS~1>

At this point you need to go back to the editor window for dosbox.conf and type exactly what you see for the command prompt (omitting the > and ignoring case; cut and patste won't work) where yourdatafolder appears. In my case

mount u c:\mydocu~1\course\intras~1

If you were able to get the short file name prompt then File>Save the dosbox.conf file with the changes and and close the editor. Go to the black command window and type Exit followed by Enter to close it (or just click on the X in the upper right and press the "End Now" button in the warning box).

If you weren't able to get the short file name then read the Wikipedia article cited above about converting long to short file names and see if you can get it.

Running TFQA Graphics Programs
Now that you have done the setup, it is easy. To run one of the graphics programs double click on the DOSBOX icon on your desktop (or from the DosBox Folder on your start menu). That will open a new black command window in which the graphics programs can run.

Just type the name of the program, e.g., scat and then press Enter and it will run and will find the files in that directory. You can run any number of analyses this way. To finish just type Exit and press Enter.

However, before you get going, you will need to do one additional thing. These graphics programs can only deal with short file names so rename each analysis file in your folder that you want to use with the graphics programs (e.g., using Windows Explorer) to have a name no more than 8 letters and numbers and underscores, followed by a period, followed by a 3 character extension, e.g. if you have a file called my site data.plt change it to mysite.plt or something else without spaces or special characters and with no more than 8 characters plus a period and a 3 character extension.

If this is working, you can delete the DosBox setup file.

Remember that if you change analysis folders you will need to reedit the DOSBOX configuration file to change to another folder.

Page Last Updated - 16-Feb-2011