DOS based CAD system

Potential-Monke

Hope it's the right place...

I'm working somewhere that uses a DOS based CAD system to keep track of, and distribute, employees. Yes, it comes with the green writing and all. I'm forever at them to at least try and upgrade it a small bit, but i keep getting told it can't be done mixed with it would cost too much.

So, i'm just wondering if anyone knows off hand, would it be a huge expense or woefully complicated (to those who could) to make a new mask (make it look modern-ish), introduce mouse support (there is extremely limited and "has-no-use" mouse support already), introduce drop-down menus, etc. Nothing too fancy.

Capt'n Midnight

not a prayer unless you have the source code

what is the program ?

another program may be able to use it's data

you could check if a DOS mouse driver is loaded, if not then no mousing anyway
if edit is installed you will see the mouse there




remember

if it works, don't fix it

programming is the art of replacing known bugs with unknown ones



if by green writing you mean an old computer then the first thing to do is back it up. unless it's running off floppy drives it's likely the hard drive is past is best before date.

Taltos

I think I may have used something similar to that years ago.

1. With DFS - stock tracking system
2. Prev employer character based oracle.
3. Aer Lingus - seat assignment and booking in system (90s).

Went from that to a graphical user interface.
Let me just let you know now - the graphics are pretty and shiny and something are better - however once you know the short cut keys and have upload abilities directly from excel (copy paste to the form) I think you are actually better off staying where you are....

Upgrading or implementing a new system can be very costly and the benefits are not always realised. If it does the job well, is reliable and secure and is meeting the needs of the company for the foreseeable future then leave well enough alone.

Potential-Monke

That's perfect, cheers! What i meant by green writing is that it looks like the computers used in those late 80's stock exchange films, all green writing on a black screen (with a bit of red and squa thrown in for good measure). It's running in windows, so is a seperate program.

Only reason i was asking was because we have over 200 employees who log on and off on a regular basis and usually in bulk of 20 or so, and logging in and out of cars, and in order to put someone out of a car and someone else in they need to be logged off and back on as a "foot" employee. Pain the the hole as it's not a simple instruction, rather a string...

Unfortunately, i don't have access to the code (and i believe it's maintained by an American company), so i can't check the mouse drivers or "edit".

There's no excel, but i can pre-load rosters, but again a pain in itself if not everyone is in when they're supposed to be. It does work though, and it rarely if ever stops working. I'd love if i could even group certain employees into groups for easy live-referencing, but as it is they stack by time...

Small gripes from a man going from a pretty GUI to a 1989 DOS based system...

Cheers though!!