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In article , Ian Cant REMOVE_TO_REPLY.i
writes
Please advise a hapless victim of software technology.

My PC uses Windows XP. How can I validate an igc file
? I can find no way to open a DOS window. With vali-lxn.exe
installed, I can tell it to run vali-lxn on a named
file. Apparently it does so; I get a second or so
of a blue window as it prepares to run, then the whole
window disappears in a flash and a new file named DBG
is generated. This file has no extension, and XP does
not know how to open it. I have tried Word and get
mainly garbage with enough text to know it was related
to the igc file, tried LXNav Tools and get 'unknown
file', tried cursing in all known human languages with
little satisfaction.

Used to work in DOS and Windows 95/98, but my old machines
died. Perhaps I can resurrect one just for this.

As an aside, does anyone else have validation problems
when downloading using SeeYou ?

Ian

Usage of the DOS programs under later operating has been a problem for
some time, not made any easier by laptops that have no serial port and
using DOS software via a USB - Serial adapter is problematic at best.

This problem as been recognised for some time by GFAC and in the current
version of the FR Specification Document (available from the IGC web
pages) it was required that for all recorders, Windows Download and
Validation Software in the form of a DLL is produced by 1st July 2004.

The DLL could be incorporated into any commercial software (Tasknav
SeeYou etc.) to allow these functions to be performed under windows and
a Stand-alone program written by Marc Ramsey is avail from the IGC web
page http://www.fai.org:81/gliding/gnss/freeware.asp

To date, only Peschges have done this, available from the above web
reference (congratulation to a company that is no longer in the FR
manufacturing business), and I understand that a Cambridge contractor is
working on a program for Cambridge recorders.

Now, pressure could be brought to bear on other manufacturers, by
threatening to rescind their approvals, but is this really practical?

I would encourage owners of other manufacturer's products to email their
manufacturer and apply pressure on them to fulfil this requirement to
provide Windows Support.

It is in your own interest!

Tim Newport-Peace

"May you be cursed with a chronic anxiety about the weather."

John Burroughs (1837-1921).