Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!haven!uvaarpa!mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!ncrlnk!ncrwic!encad!enint!blair
From: blair@enint.Wichita.NCR.COM (Brian Lair)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Try calling your app "DISPLAY.EXE"
Message-ID: <366@enint.Wichita.NCR.COM>
Date: 28 Nov 88 18:37:44 GMT
References: <959@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Organization: NCR Corporation, Wichita, Kansas
Lines: 24

In article <959@paris.ics.uci.edu>, posert@bonnie.ics.uci.edu (Bob Posert) writes:
> Even a slight variation yields a file that will run;
> windows will run both msdosc.exe and msdose.exe, but not msdosd.exe.

Fortunately, this oddity is explained in Petzold, p. 806:

"Some dynamic libraries are designed for use only by a specific program.
For instance, the MSDOS.EXE file is a Windows program* that uses a dynamic
library called MSDOSD.EXE, which contains machine-dependent functions to
format disks.  Windows can be adapted for different MS-DOS machines by
changing only the MSDOSD.EXE library module rather than the larger
MSDOS.EXE program module."

(Reprinted without permission.  Void where prohibited.)

* Someone pointed out in a previous posting, however, that MSDOS.EXE is
more than likely NOT a Windows program, but merely a placeholder to direct
the MS-DOS Executive Window to run another instance of itself.

-- 
Brian R. Lair            NCR Corporation, E&M Wichita, Advanced Development
 Brian.Lair@Wichita.NCR.COM
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