#Chaos won't exit!!
3 messages in this thread
md,
I tried every-which-way to make Chaos fail to exit and couldn't. The batch
file looks pretty robust to me, as long as everything is running from the
same directory. Did you do anything unusual after installing, like move
things around in directories, starting Chaos from other batch files, etc?
Did you modify CHAOS.BAT? Do you have an old version of METASHEL somewhere
in your path?
Some of the junk in the Chaos batch file is to detect whether Chaos was
called from Windows or DOS. It relies on errorlevel returns to handle the
menu logic. You may have a corrupted file. It should be a simple matter
to write a short batch file to test the errorlevel returns from MENU.EXE.
Send an E-mail message if you need any help with that.
JKJ (card-carrying Chaos and Fractint follower)
John,
This is the chaos.bat file that I have. Does it match yours? I am
launching from the command line in a vanilla boot and I still can't exit.
Alt-q won't even let me exit!
echo off rem **** James Gleick's CHAOS:The Software **** set
batchval=1 :top if %windir%.==. menu %batchval% if not %windir%.==.
metashel menu %batchval% if errorlevel 999 goto exit if errorlevel 6 goto
toy if errorlevel 5 goto forge if errorlevel 4 goto barn if errorlevel 3
goto attract if errorlevel 2 goto mag if errorlevel 1 goto mand goto top
:mand set batchval=2 if %windir%.==. mandelx %1 if not %windir%.==.
metashel mandelx %1 if errorlevel 255 goto top if errorlevel 2 goto exit
set batchval=0 goto top
:mag set batchval=3 if %windir%.==. magnetx %1 if not %windir%.==. metashel
magnetx %1 if errorlevel 255 goto top if errorlevel 2 goto exit set
batchval=0 goto top
:attract set batchval=4 if %windir%.==. attractx %1 if not %windir%.==.
metashel attractx %1 if errorlevel 255 goto top if errorlevel 2 goto exit
set batchval=0 goto top
:barn set batchval=5 if %windir%.==. gamex %1 if not %windir%.==. metashel
gamex %1 if errorlevel 255 goto top if errorlevel 2 goto exit set
batchval=0 goto top
:forge set batchval=6 if %windir%.==. forgex %1 if not %windir%.==.
metashel forgex %1 if errorlevel 255 goto top if errorlevel 2 goto exit set
batchval=0 goto top
:toy set batchval=7 if %windir%.==. toyx %1 if not %windir%.==. metashel
toyx %1 if errorlevel 255 goto top if errorlevel 2 goto exit set batchval=0
goto top
:exit if %windir%.==. metashel /k cls echo Thank you for using CHAOS: The
Software
Mike,
The CHAOS.BAT file you sent would not even run on my system as it was
missing a critical line just before the line "set batchval=1":
if %windir%.==. metashel /i
This installs the MetaGraphics driver as a TSR if Windows is not running.
Without the TSR, MENU.EXE will not run unless "windir" is set in the
environment (as it is when launched from Windows). Is this line in your
batch file? (perhaps it was lost in transmission) If it is missing, does
it help when added? For your reference, the critical files in my directory
are:
chaos bat 1636 02-05-92 11:04p
menu exe 89087 02-01-91 3:43p
metashel exe 94471 11-22-89 8:57a
Do the file *sizes* match? Are you using DOS 5.0? After you run, what
does SET report? As you noted, it would be trivial to write your own
batchfile to bypass the MENU program. A few minutes debugging your
existing setup, however, would probably nab the culprit. If you comment
out the "ECHO OFF" line and insert a line with "PAUSE" between every line
in the batch file, you can see what is going on.
JKJ (attempting to put order into Chaos)