Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp

Subject: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: GUEST,James H. Silver
Date: 30 Oct 03 - 09:12 PM

I have installed ABCWin2.1 on a new computer using windows XP. The program will not draw the music. Does anyone have a solution to this problem? The programworked fine on windows 95. Thanks

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 30 Oct 03 - 09:35 PM

Assuming you mean Jim Vint's ABC2Win, it was designed for earlier versions of Windows and may not work properly in XP whatever you do, though it's possible that there's a way of running some older programs in some fashion under that system. You could ask Jim, of course. http://www.abc2win.com/

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Oct 03 - 10:23 PM

ABC2Win is a Visual Basic Runtime program, and requires a "VB Runtime" core that was so commonly on the majority of older systems that it was left out of the download. WinXP uses very little VB programming, if any, and there are apparently not enough VB programs out for XP to give a good likelihood that you'll have the necessary runtime components installed.

I made a brief stab at chasing down components, and most of them seem to be available; but short of recompiling with the runtime core included (masssively bloated file size for download) there were just too many missing bits and pieces. I gave up.

The necessary pieces are probably on your, or my, older Win98 machine. It's just a problem of finding the right ones and getting them moved.

It's possible there is, or will eventually be, an update of ABC2Win to address this. I don't use it often enough to fight with it now.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Oct 03 - 07:00 AM

I have a fairly old version of this, that I bought when I was running 98SE. I have had XP Home for about 9 months, and ABC2Win works fine.

Chris

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: Chris/Darwin
Date: 31 Oct 03 - 07:03 AM

Oops! Came out as the dreaded GUEST. Reset cookie monster.

Chris

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: GUEST,James H. Silver
Date: 31 Oct 03 - 08:47 AM

Problem corrected. It was necessary to set compatibility mode to windows 95 for this program. Hope this helps someone else with same or similar problem. Thanks to all. Support always appreciated

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Oct 03 - 03:02 PM

I've tried running it, and it looks for a number of Visual Basic components not on my XP machine. The usual way of getting them, was that you'd install a program that had the VBRUNxxx.dll module included, and once you had one program with the runtime components, other VB programs could use them.

Quite a few programs, apparently ABCWin2.1 among them, were distributed without the runtime components, and it usually worked because almost every Win95 or Win98 machine would have something installed that had already put the right other stuff there. Almost any VB program that came on a disk would probably include the runtime components; but they were quite large and were commonly omitted in downloadable programs.

You're not likely to get them with a program "certed" for XP, because virtually all VB based programs qualified for XP are compiled to binary (to obtain the benefit of DWORD bit size).

If ABCWin2.1 runs on your machine, it's likely that you also have another VB program that you brought over from your previous system, that brought the necessary pieces onto your XP machine. The components may also be on the XP system install disks for use as an optional installation, but they don't install in a default setup of XP - I frankly haven't looked to see if they're there.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: Mark Clark
Date: 31 Oct 03 - 03:26 PM

According to Vint's site, the new version is distributed with a copy of vbrun300.dll.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Oct 03 - 07:14 PM

Time for me to go back and get the new one, then.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: pavane
Date: 01 Nov 03 - 04:09 AM

My program HARMONY comes with the VB5 runtime components, in case you need them. That's why it is so big. (it also imports abc)

No-one has yet confirmed that they are running it on XP though, so if anyone is (registered or not) maybe they could let me know

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: Chris/Darwin
Date: 01 Nov 03 - 06:25 AM

Just did a search and found several copies of vbrun300.dll, including copies in Windows\system and system32, and in Works 2002. The copies in the system directories may well have been put there by older programs carried across.

Chris

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Nov 03 - 07:39 AM

You can get vbrun.dll in about any version you want (free download) from the Microsoft Visual Basic support center. The ABCWin program asks for vbrun300.dll, but either vbrun300.dll or vbrun400.dll should work, as the site indicates that the '400 version aliases its ident tag to look like '300 for backward compatibility. Last (current?) Visual Basic version is '600, being replaced now by VB.net. [hooray, another adspeak buzzword!]

If you are missing vbrun, you'll likely get a "cannot find vbrun300.dll" message when you try to crank up a program that needs it. If the program starts, but doesn't run correctly, it's more likely you need to set back to a compatability mode - Win95 usually. I tried placing vbrun on my machine, and it just goes to the next "cannot find xxx" error, so it's possible that my rather old ABCWin install file has been corrupted by multiple migrations. New version is on the "do list."

John

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: Mark Clark
Date: 01 Nov 03 - 12:30 PM

Neil, I regularly run HARMONY on XP and haven't seen any problems.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: pavane
Date: 02 Nov 03 - 03:26 AM

Thanks Mark.
If you want me to add you to the Harmony Users mailing list, so you get news of updates, PM me with your email address.
(That goes for anyone else who wants to be added to the list).
You don't need to be a registered user.

The next version (3.2.5) out soon will allow import and export of multi-voice abc files.

Subject: RE: Tech: ABCWin2.1 in windows xp
From: GUEST,John in Brisbane
Date: 10 Nov 03 - 06:37 AM

ABCWIN in my opinion is considerably outdated in terms of its ability to handle newer versions of the ABC Standard which incorporate (say) lyric lines and other useful features which were never included or improved in this program. There are considerably better pieces of software available now with excellent support from their respective authors - not forgetiing Pavane's excellent HARMONY program.

Regards, John in Brisbane