From:	Walter Briscoe <wbriscoe AT ponle DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	NTVDM.EXE crashing in Windows 2000 SP3, Windows XP, with DJGPP 2.03 building vim
Date:	Thu, 27 Mar 2003 10:38:46 +0000
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Sender:	Walter Briscoe <wbriscoe AT 127 DOT 0 DOT 0 DOT 1>
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This is being posted to
The Vim developers mailing list <mailto colon vim-dev at vim.org> and to
news:comp.os.msdos.djgpp. Some of what I write may seem to attack; it is
not intended to do so; I merely report experience given my own limits.

In message <35C843B8EC93D511844500306E0029B3497486 AT asl1 DOT hq DOT asl-
electronics.co.uk> of Mon, 24 Mar 2003 08:22:08 in , Vince Negri
<vnegri AT asl-electronics DOT co DOT uk> writes
>>>See: http://clio.rice.edu/djgpp/W2K_workaround.htm
[in the mailing list, I wrote]
>>Vince,
>>Thanks for the pointer. The patch does not fit the NTVDM in W2K SP3. I
>>have started a dialog with its author. If and when I get something
>>useful, I shall report it here.
>
>Aah of course.. I remember now that I hit this issue. I took
>a patched NTVDM from an SP2 machine and forced it onto the
>SP3 machine (copying first to the dllcache to thwart WFP.)
>It worked, but a drastic solution..
I now have something useful to report.

Either the author of ntvdmpat.zip referenced from
http://clio.rice.edu/djgpp/W2K_workaround.htm did not get an email I
sent on 2003-03-23 or it was not worth a reply; his postings to
comp.os.msdos.djgpp made on 2003-03-25 and 2003-03-27 suggest activity.

That URL says "2) Optional: Patch Windows NTVDM.EXE
If you have Windows 2000 (Original, SP1, SP2) you can modify your NTVDM
image to avoid crashes ...". I thought that file probably predated SP3
and a download was worth a trial. The trial succeeded; the patch does
not work on SP3! It might be friendly to add a sentence: "This patch
does not work on later releases of Windows." Is there no mileage in
getting microSoft to fix the problem? I failed to find any history on
the phenomenal analysis of this bug.

That URL has a link entitled "DJGPP 2.03 Update Page" to
http://clio.rice.edu/djgpp/win2k/main_203.htm
I was able to use that informative page to download a set of files which
allowed me to make -f Make_djg.mak to make vim without hitting the crash
in ntvdm.exe which previously disturbed me.

(I did hit something weird which is probably well known to DJGPP users;
I did not find it in the FAQ. I run cmd.exe in a 140*60 window in W2K
SP3; all DJGPP-produced programs change the window dimensions to 80*50.
Usually the original window dimensions are restored.)

That URL says it was "Released to Simtel January 8"; the year is not
specified. It has links to directories on Simtel and Clio and to files
on Simtel. A link entitled "gcc2953b.zip GCC 2.953" is dead; it has the
comment "1781 Kb (or gcc30xb.zip from Simtel)". I preferred to grab the
later file; I was too lazy to hunt for it; I grabbed gcc2953b.zip from
the Clio directory.
It (main_203.htm) has a link entitled "Visit the the (sic) DJGPP Test
Build Page" to http://clio.rice.edu/djgpp/win2k/main_204.htm That URL
has a link to
http://www.phekda.freeserve.co.uk/richdawe/djgpp/2.04/status204.html
I learned that 2.04 is in Alpha, due to go to Beta in 2003-03, and due
for release in 2003-05. To paraphrase the soothsayer to Julius Caesar in
Skakespeare's play: "March is come. But not yet gone!".
-- 
Walter Briscoe

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