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Enable OA

Again the other day I passed the Northway Ten Executive Park on Ushers Road and remembered how I discovered EnableOA at Software City and would frequently stop in to chat with the inventors of Enable.

Hi Ho EnableOA. /OAfurf
 
I now run Enable on my "new" laptop. I horsetraded for a nice Dell which runs Win7 32-bit. By selecting the XP SP3 compatibility mode, it works just fine. To be honest, I don't use it for much more than private journaling right now, but I suspect more uses will arise in the near future. It's nice to be back active on the board.
 
OAfurf!

OAfurf!

Hi OAfurf! (Or anyone else who can help!) We are a small company (about 30 pple) in the Chicagoland area that uses Enable for 30 years already! It looks like you know everyone in the "business", I have a request that I think would be in everyone's interest here. Would you have connections, or know who to lead me to, to be able to get ahold of the code (I believe it was programmed in C? but regardless, doesn't matter) of the original Enable creators, either the DOS version, and/or the beginnings of the Windows version, that perhaps we could pick up where they left off (or partner with them if that would make it more attractive) to upgrade it and put it back on the market? (or even if they have a deal keeping it from getting on the market if Microsoft bought them out, that at least we can give free upgrades to those who can't manage to leave Enable or live without it)?? We are desperate, we also have not been able to "move on". Enable is just too versatile, and allows reports/programs with writing "your own thing" to the screen, as well as taking input from the screen and doing every interaction imaginable with the databases and other forms/fields all from the same single form or program, as well as a slew of other things. Nothing we have looked into upgrading to compares! So if you have ANY ANY ANY leads, I would be so grateful!! We are willing to do all the work, we just need someone to make the connection!

Meanwhile, from the posts I've read, I see you use windows 98 - just wanted to let you know that while our company servers have XP or less, my laptop which I do my personal work on, has windows 7 professional (or enterprise, or ultimate I forget which), and then Microsoft lets you download an XP virtual machine for free. From the virtual machine, you can do anything you can do in the old windows, Enable and 16-bit programs work there like a dream. The only thing I haven't managed in ANY windows version is to get Enable to print to my USB (or wifi) printer, but I had that problem in windows 98 as well. I see you addressed that earlier, I have to see if it will work. Do you have a link for me for DOSprn to try so I don't have to back search for it?

In any event, any leads to enable inventors, creators or programmers, or putting out the word for me to anyone who can connect us with the code, we will be eternally grateful (as I'm sure will the rest of the Enable community!)

Thank you so much in advance for all your help!
 
Bringing Enable into the 21st Century

Bringing Enable into the 21st Century

i'd love to be able to point you to the correct person/persons. We have a shared member group at Thogscave.org (an original member of the programming team). enableoa@thogscave.org will hit the various members that are from all different parts of the world. They too have requested/earched for the code and the "Windows version" that i wasn't aware of. We share tips and tricks; and yes we do run Enable 4.5 on Windows7, just make sure its not 64 bit or you're doomed to failure. I'd suggest you copy this email and send it out to the enableoa@thogscave.org and you'll get some pretty expertise responses. I wish you the best, we've helped many through specific issues and problems but would LOVE TO SEE ENABLE OA UPGRADED!!

to print to a USB printer, simply share the printer on the PC and in your Enable Startup batch file execute a "net use lpt1: \\pcname\sharename" where lpt1: can be lpt2: through lpt4:. There are additional parameters that can be used for the net use command if you have specific or unique needs.
 
I was one of the originally developers of Enable. I worked for the company from about 1983 until 1990 and was involved mostly with the spreadsheet and database applications. My area of expertise was the math functions and I wrote virtually all of them. I also designed and wrote the macro language editor. Enable was primarily written in x86 assembly language. There were a few of the other programmers that were dabbling in C but that was not the main language of use. The company continued to struggle after I left and finally died a quiet death in about 1995 or so. The management left a lot of hard working people out on a limb and failed to fulfill many of the promises they made. I will monitor this thread (or maybe we need to start a new one) and try to help out as well as I can after so many years. By the way, I left Enable to take a fantastic job as Engineering Manager at a non-software company and, while I have fond memories of the Enable years, am not sorry in any way for leaving. I am now retired (mostly).
 
Turns out that I am related to Peersguru and also worked at The Software Group from 1984 - 1986 as a Tech Support rep and Application Development Specialist. Enable was/is an amazing piece of software. Along the way I developed a couple of accounting packages and quite a few of the functional demos used when the software was included in response to RFPs from the IRS, USAF and others. I'm fascinated to see that people are still out there using this little gem. Considering that it was designed to run with no more than 256K of RAM and be functional with 2 360K 5.25" floppy disk drives as the only storage medium, it really does put today's bloatware to shame.
 
Enable OA for the future

Enable OA for the future

There are many regular users (myself being one) that have MANY large apps and systems running on good old Enable. From terminal server apps, point of sale and accts. Rec., to networked systems with MANY users. We've got a good group of very knowledgeable OA on a seperate site referenced above as Thogscave (Peter W's site-who was also a programmer). Several including myself would like to bring OA to win7 (64 bit) and be Win compatible with its DBs. We've even heard there was a beta copy built for Windows, but can't seen to find someone with a copy of that!?? If you have interest in that or assisting us in taking OA into the next level of operating systems, please do share and join the group at Thogscave. Several over there know much more than I about taking us beyond where the lastest version left off (I believe 61.6 as I recall). We alsomaybe have athe lot ofof downloadable material for usersthe there.
I haven't heard from FrFr lately. He got me connected to the original 2 or 3 of us that started communicating back in the early 2000s via email off his site OhSaratoga. Hope all is well with FrFr.
 
This is a really off the wall request, but I was wondering if anyone has a slew of printer drivers around. I lost most of mine to a virus years ago....I've got only two or three left, but I'd sure like to have the rest of the suite. I'm proud to say that I'm still using Enable version 2.0, on a Windows 98 machine (soon to upgrade to 98 SE, so I can finally use thumb drives for backups)!
 
Enable version 2

Enable version 2

Unfortunately none of us are using version 2 anymore. i don't even have a copy of that after migrating to 3, and then to 4.5. the only way to get the printer drivers for Enable installed is through the installation disks using the install procedure. if you're interested in upgrading to version 4.5 (which has LOTS of updated and more current drivers than version 2 of course), it can be downloaded from http://www.thogscave.org/enable/files/. upgrading to 4.5 will require some menu and macro changes, as there were a lot of improvements and changes to the system between those 2 versions!!!

you could email the group of users that are at Thogscave at enableoa@thogscave.org to see if one of them would have version 2 laying around.
 
Mid,

Thanks for the reply.

Actually, I'm in so deep with my v.2 macros that I'd be scared to change. One of 'em even guides my investment stragegies! Maybe I'll sniff around over @ Thogscave for a set of v.2 disks.....I lost all mine to a virus long ago!
 
Printing with Enable OA in Windows XP

Printing with Enable OA in Windows XP

David Bindoff said:
Hello fellow Enable users,

I have used Enable OA for years and am very pleased to see this bulletin
board.

I wrote a realtime, multiuser, order processing ,packing slips,invoicing etc and accounting system for my small business about 15 years ago. I initially ran it on Dos, but migrated to OS/2 as soon as it became available, because the increased memory available made it far more stable and robust in operation.

This system is run almost entirely with procedural language programs run off a dummy database.


It has basically run non-stop since implementation on OS/2 ,(and still on the
original 486DX2 server which has almost never been turned off except for the odd error and power loss and new fan etc.) Since then I have used Enable for many different projects, the database module is a real workhorse!

When OS/2 became defunct I thought I'd better try to shift to windows.

I never purchased an Enable version made specifiaclly for windows, so I use the dos version, which I run under the dos command prompt in windows and runs fine except that I cannot print anything. Hence my first question, is there a true windows version of EnableOA?

If there is, I would love to get hold of it.

Failing that has anyone solved how to print in windows using the DOs version?

My second big ask is; does any one know how I can gain more Enable key numbers? I would dearly love to be able to run more concurrent users.

If you think I can be of assistance to you, please ask.

Thanks

David Bindoff
Click to expand...


We've run OA DOS for years in XP and print fine, providing it's to a PCL5 compatable printer using the appropriate OA HP printer driver. At computer start up we run a caupture of LPT1 and direct it to the specified printer, including network printers, by name. In this case, "Prez" is the network printer name. Down side is your limited to printer choices, but there's a lot still made, including DELL.
@echo off
net use lpt1: /delete
net use lpt1: \\fs1\prez

Hope that helps

Jim
 
Help getting Enable OA running Full Screen in XP

Help getting Enable OA running Full Screen in XP

While we've been running it for 20-30 years, and continue to do so in XP full screen, for the life of me I can't figure out how to get Enable running full screen on my XP machines any longer. My long time configurations are fine, regardless of how I tweak the settings on start-up short cuts, ENDPM and batch files it opens in a window. I had notes on how to address this with my books, which are slowly growing legs! What's the tweak, be it video settings or what, in combination with running full screen, maximized etc. I'm forgetting?

It seems starting ENDPM direct opens full screen, but doesn't see the data path, profiles etc.. Starting it from a desktop shortcut batch file works fine on some clients but not on others. Starting with:

@echo off
set tmp=c:\dtemp
set gmk=c:\gmk\
endpm (c:\en400,c:\en400,c:\en400,c:\en400,f:\edata),i=U1,sl,LP1-n,LP2-n,@2

What am I missing?

Jim Buchanan
 
Hi all - just joined today. I will apologize in advance for any cross postings. My company used Enable back in the day - have all the program files on big ole floppys, from the first version up to oa. My company is trying to transfer data from enable to access. We have archaeological data that we would like to deposit at tDAR (the digital antiquities record) but need some way to upload the data files. Does anyone know of somewhere i could get a cd with the enable program? Once this is done I will give the floppys to anyone who wants them - if there is such a person! thanks!
 
The full window will be a windows function that either your shortcut or your batch file (whichever you use to start Enable with) will have in it's setting. Most users ( http://www.thogscave.org/enable/Enable_O_A.html ) are using Enable as a window and setting the shortcut properties to Lucida Font size 20 or 24 depending on your screen resolution settings.
 
Hi, Peersguru, I'm writing to you because this seems to be the most recent post from an original Enabler (!) I was briefly a VAR for Enable and tried to start a biz writing applications in it...and then they closed.

I have three sets of "Enable 4.5 Upgrade" that I just located on discovering this forum. Nobody wants or need the 21 5.25 floppies but the original documentation was excellent for its time and still is. These are sets as big as an MCSE course, with tabbed binders, etc.

I used Enable 3. in my business, as it was very compatible with VAX/VMS, until we shut it down in 2010 (Just lucked out as HP announced they were killing our business platform soon after). On top of which, of course, there are no virus problems with Enable, and most people have no idea how to get the data without the software, so it's equally secure from IP theft.
A product revival would probably be successful if aimed at small business IMHO.
 
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