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From: smsmith@hpuxa.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stephen M. Smith)
Subject: Re: Question about Dos and backgrounded programs:
Message-ID: <1991Apr15.014401.12257@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
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Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1991 01:44:01 GMT
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shedevil@leland.Stanford.EDU (Annie) writes:
>
>I have two programs that I often have loaded at the same time, one is a term
>program, and one is a word-processor (procomm, and w.p.).
> [deletions]
>Is there a way to designate which job I want to 'exit' to, so that I
>can go back and forth between the two?

The answer is no.  Here's a schema of what's happening:

       ____________________
       |                  |
       |   PROCOMM--1st   |
       |     program      |
       |     started      |
       |__________________|
                 |
           (shell to DOS)  
       __________|_________
       |                  |
       |     W.P.--2nd    |
       |      program     |
       |      started     |
       |__________________|
                 |
           (shell to DOS)

Thus after shelling to DOS out of your wp program, you can only
get back to ProComm by going back into wp and then quiting that,
then exiting from the next shell which would then take you back
to ProComm.  In addition, when both programs are in memory they
both reside in base memory (0-640k)--I'm a little surprised you
had enough memory for both to fit!

The good news is that there is a way of "switching" between
the two.  There are PD and/or inexpensive shareware programs
around which will allow you to do this.  Try looking at
wuarchive.wustl.edu in /mirror/msdos.  Maybe the subdirectory
/mirrors/msdos/sysutl will have something; in fact I just saw
something that should do the trick a couple days ago, and I'm
pretty sure it was at wuarchive.  Download the readme file
in /mirrors/msdos/sysutl and read the descriptions--I think
there might be a program there which will suit your needs.
If not, look over the other subdirectories in /mirrors/msdos.

Steve Smith
smsmith@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu