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A note/tutorial about DHPOS and it's folders...

Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:12 am
by Andrew
I thought it would be a good idea to remind users that because DHPOS is DOS based, it uses short file/foldernames (8 characters long max with a 3 letter extension).

In the beginning, Bill Gates created MS-DOS (well he bought it cheap anyways)
Back in the old days, those of us who were from the DOS/Win 3.1 era will remember the 8.3 format for file names. This meant that filenames could only be 8 letters long followed by a . and a 3 letter extension...

Example: POSCONFG.EXE

Time for a change
In the realms of Windows 98 (perhaps 95 too), Microsoft revamped file management and now allowed users to create almost unlimited length filenames, and these have now become standard.

However - DOS programs cannot understand the long names, so you must always enter paths into DOS programs in their shortened format.


Example from today's chat
C:\Documents and Settings\Brian W\Desktop\pos612b
would become...
C:\DOCUME~1\BRIANW\DESKTOP\POS612B

Note there are no spaces, and any folder longer than 8 characters must be shortened to 6 and have "~1" added, if there are similar folders they will become ~2, ~3 and so on...

So remember whenever DHPOS or any DOS based program prompts you for a path/filename - it will need to be in the shortened format.