HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: yawei@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Ya-Gui Wei ~{QG9p~})
Subject: Re: screen saver routines
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 92 18:25:13 GMT

>>   I'm planning on incorporating a screen saver into my program.
>>From what I gather, I'll need to hook onto 2 interrupts, 0x1C and
>>0x09.  My hook to interrupt 0x1C will increment a counter every
>>time it is called and if the counter is greater than a certain
>>amount of time, blank the screen.  My hook to interrupt 0x09 will
>>unblank the screen and clear the counter if the screen is already
>>blanked, otherwise it will just clear the counter.  Can someone
>>tell me if this will work or have any suggestions/improvements?

  This is neccessary only if you are writing a TSR (memory resident
program) or want the screen saver to act as a TSR. If you are not
writing a TSR it is not neccessary (and not nice) to hook the 
interrupts. 

  Instead, write a routine in your program that gets called 
periodically (e.g., a keyboard input routine.) Inside this
routine, keep a counter of some sort, and clear the screen when
the counter exceeded a certain value. After that you just wait
for a keystroke then restore the screen. If precise timeing is
required you can use the neccessary function calls in the language
to determine the time before clearing the screen.

  Note that it is not a good idea for a screen saver routine to
completely blank the screen. A better idea is to write a message
on screen indicating what happened, and rewrite this message on
different locations periodically.

  Ya-Gui Wei
From: beaurega@ireq.hydro.qc.ca (Denis Beauregard)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Strange 80x86 OPCODE
Keywords: 80x86 Assembler Fun
Date: 30 Jul 92 18:40:35 GMT
Organization: Institut de recherche d'Hydro-Quebec, Varennes, Canada

In article <3947@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us> aki@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us writes:
>
>Doing my thing I hit upon a truly strange op-code:
>
>It's 0F 3D,  i.e. 286+ 2-byte opcode that has 3D as the second
>byte.  Problem is,  that I can't find any reference to it anywhere.
>It looks like it's either something very new or undocumented.

I check inside Microsoft Macro Assembler 5.1 and found nothing.
This includes 80386 instructions.  However, I had to check each
instruction one at the time since there is no summary table
for all opcodes.  Could you indicate (1) references you already check
and (2) context where this instruction appeared.

In old Apple ][, the boot program was executing some text so that
1) you couldn't remove Apple name from EPROM in at least one place or
other modify the EPROM except in a few places
2) you couldn't replace the 6502 chip by a 65C?? (I forget the name, was
a more powerful version of 6502 with more instructions, like the 8088/V20)

I don't think this is possible in Sorftware running in any PC.  In the
6502, empty codes were doing always the same thing and most could
be documented and predicted.  In 80x86 _family_, this is not possible.

>
>I considered the possibility of the 0F being a 8088/8086 POP CS,
>but the surrounding code excludes this.
>
>Anyone have any idea what that opcode does?
>
>Aki.
>-- 
>/  Phone: 408-662 9664   Fax: 662 9676  |  "Aki" pronounced: Ah-Key. I know  \ 
>\  125 Searidge Ct #D, Aptos, CA 95003  |  what I'm doing most of the time.  /


-- 
  \_\    Denis Beauregard  *  internet:beaurega@ireq.hydro.qc.ca
 /   \   Genealogiste officiel : Beauregard/Jarret/Jarest/Vincent
J   __>  Barthelemy Jarret (1471) -> Andre Jarret, sieur de Beauregard (1665)
\_.-===   -> Denis Beauregard (1992)                  Opinions ? Et pis non !
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
From: dmurdoch@QueensU.CA (Duncan Murdoch)
Subject: Re: Duplicate function names (in different .lib's)
Organization: Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 03:01:00 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.003009.10647@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> yawei@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Ya-Gui Wei) writes:
>In article <1992Jul17.063123.6492@grebyn.com> bittware@grebyn.com (Bittware) writes:
>>I'm having a problem with duplicate function names between a commercial
>>graphics library and the Borland graphics library (moveto).  
...
>
>   One dirty solution would be to patch one of the libraries to change
>one of the names.  I don't know of a cleaner solution.

Another solution is to change to a language with a richer idea of
scoping, such as Pascal or Modula-2.  In Turbo Pascal, for instance,
every library (unit) could have a "moveto", and one would be the default, but
you could access any of the others by specifying which library to get it
from.  The only name clashes that are hard to deal with in TP are
clashes between the names of units; those aren't allowed.

I don't think TP would be a particularly good choice in this case
because its linker is so weak at handling foreign libraries, but  
other Pascal or Modula compilers might be.

Duncan Murdoch
dmurdoch@mast.queensu.ca
From: ralf+@cs.cmu.edu (Ralf Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: 8237A DMA Chip on the PC
Keywords: 8237A DMA Chip on the PC
Date: 22 Jul 92 01:51:06 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

In article <tfiske.711742881@qualcom> tfiske@qualcom.qualcomm.com (T.J. Fiske) writes:
}The 8237A DMA chip on the PC:
}on the AT and higher models, there are 8 dma channels.
}I need to program channel 5, since I need to do 16 bit
}dma transfers.  Anyways, to progam the target address
}correctly, it needs a "page" address at port 0x8b.
}What is this page address, and how can I do an address

The high eight bits of the 24-bit linear address, which you compute as
	((long)segment)<<4 + offset

(of course, this computation applies only in real mode)


-- 
Internet: RALF+@CS.CMU.EDU   |The University would disclaim this if it knew...
FIDO: Ralf Brown 1:129/26.1  |"Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from
BIT: RALF%CS.CMU.EDU@CARNEGIE| getting into situations where you need it."
AT&Tnet: (412)268-3053 school|		-- Doug Larson
From: falk@peregrine.Sun.COM (Ed Falk)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: advanced beginner needs book recomendations
Date: 23 Jul 1992 23:43:35 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: peregrine

Hi all; thanx to those who had advice for me.  The best-looking
book at Computer Literacy seemed to be the MS-DOS Programmer's
Reference, published by QUE.  The most recommended one was
Advanced MS-DOS Programming, by Ray Duncan.

However, the guy at the store talked me into a huge monster
of a book called "PC Intern", which he swears contains *everything*.
He seems to be right, there are chapters on every kind of hardware
you can imagine.  The only shortcoming so far seems to be that it
doesn't document the undocumented system calls.  It's 1300 pages with
a companion disk.  Anybody here ever seen this book before?

		-ed falk, sun microsystems
		 sun!falk, falk@sun.com
	terrorist, cryptography, DES, drugs, cipher, secret, decode,
	DSS, FBI, NSA, CIA, NRO, SDI, communist, proletariat.
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: TSR novice
From: billp@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (bill parquet)
Date: 29 Jul 92 22:03:53 EST

I don't see why it would be any different.  There are a couple of things
that you should be careful about when linking more than one module:

1) Foremost ... Make sure that your program knows how big it is.  You could
hardcode it into the program (this makes things a real pain when modifying)
or you could make the program autodetect its size.  I prefer the latter
approach.  When you do it that way, pay particular attention to the way
your modules are linked (If you have a "lastbyte" variable in one module,
make sure this module occurss last when you link)

2) Beside the point ... Be careful about using DOS functions.  Unless you
really MUST use a dos function (e.g. file i/o) try to avoid it.
From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: MS C/C++ 7 disappointments
Date: 31 Jul 92 10:31:24 GMT
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA

Ditto, we have MSC 7.00 available, but are sticking to MSC 6.00a for
the nonce, especially after the disaster with 6.00.  It's pretty much
a personal policy (which I've noticed in many others) to never trust
anything from MS with a ".0" extension.  It'll work for the most part,
but the creeping buglets will get you eventually.  Wait for bug-fix
release.  Once they get the bugs out, it's fairly decent.
-- 
We will get along fine as soon as you realize I am God.
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
From: yev_g@athena.mit.edu (Yevgeny Gurevich)
Subject: Re: Turbo C++ problem (bug?)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 15:59:19 GMT

In article <1992Jul21.231527.26581@reed.edu> bob@reed.edu (Robert Ankeney) writes:
>when I execute the "db_ptr += read_size" statement, nothing happens!
.
.
>unsigned char	huge	*dbstart;
>unsigned char	huge	*db_ptr;
.
.
>
>		db_ptr += read_size;
>		st_size -= read_size;
		^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I believe that when you are working with huge pointers, you cannot simply
add offsets to them like you are doing.  The Borland programmers reference
mentions the need to normalize the huge pointer before you perform the
arithmetic operations on it.

Yevgeny Gurevich         ___/~\____/~\_/~~~~\__/~\______/~\_ 
500 Memorial Drive      |____/~\__/~\__/~\______/~\____/~\__|
Cambridge, Mass. 02139  |_____/~\/~\___/~~~\_____/~\__/~\___|
yev_g@athena.mit.edu    |______/~~\____/~~~~\______/~~\_____|

--
[ Yevgeny Gurevich ]
Xref: sparky comp.os.msdos.programmer:8139 comp.lang.c:11687
From: copeland@cs.arizona.edu (Jack Copeland)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer,comp.lang.c
Subject: BC++ graphics storage (void far *)
Keywords: BC++ graphics C
Date: 29 Jul 92 01:07:36 GMT
Followup-To: poster

In BC++ graphic images are stored using void far *, ie getimage.
Does anyone know exactly how images are stored?  I'm trying to printf the
contents of the variable pointing to the graphic; how can this be done?

copeland
From: falatic@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (MacGyver)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Software to do Calculus with?
Date: 23 Jul 92 02:29:00 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center


	Hi again! I am looking for software to do essentially what the Hewlett-
Packard 48's do as far as symbolic calculus. I need something that is relatively
inexpensive, (If I had $300 or whatever, I'd but the silly calculator!), will
work without a math coprocessor (I am not looking for speed, but I want the
option for the future,) and will do all the nifty stuff such as simple graphing
and some equation solving. I have seen Mathematecia, as well as some cheap
calculus tutorials at the University's bookstores, but I know little of these.
Any good suggestions? Please reply by E-Mail, to save space here.

		Thank You,
		  Martin Falatic,  falatic@mentor.cc.purdue.edu

P.S.: I also want expensive possibilities, just in case. The stuff is needed to
help me with my Calculus classes (thru second year engineering (EE)) at least.c 
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
From: tpradeep@cs.tamu.edu (Pradeep K Tapadiya)
Subject: Is this a "make" limitation?
Organization: Computer Science Department, Texas A&M University
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 16:26:41 GMT

Howdy friends,

I am wondering if I can increase my developement time and reduce the
wear and tear on the disk by using a better makefile construct.

Background Info:
  MSDOS 5
  Microsoft `C' 7.0 compiler
  Microsoft nmake (make utility)

Given, say, 30 dependent files, my makefile compiles the source files as

   cl -c a.c
   cl -c b.c
   cl -c c.c

   and so on for all those source files which are out of date.

Obviously, for each such source file there is an overhead of
loading and releasing the compiler. A better construct would be

  cl -c a.c b.c c.c ...

wherein the compiler is loaded and released just once.

Note that the command string needs to be constructed dynamically
depending on the out of date source files.

Question:
 Is there a way to achieve this using "any" make utility ?
 ( nmake, borland make , or any public domain or shareware make)

Thank you for your help. If need be, I'll summerize the responses
on the net.

Pradeep
tpradeep@cs.tamu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
From: potts@itl.itd.umich.edu (Paul Potts)
Subject: Re: Borland 3.1 C++ Upgrade??
Organization: Instructional Technology Laboratory, University of Michigan
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 15:41:31 GMT

In article <1992Jul23.164652.20137@rtf.bt.co.uk> traub@rtf.bt.co.uk (Michael Traub) writes:
>In article <1992Jul21.144210.28500@dg-rtp.dg.com> brownp@viper.rtp.dg.com (Peter Brown) writes:
>>I'm still a bit miffed about not getting the API though,
>>especially when they include a nice picture of all the manuals showing the 3.1
>>number on them and a the windows api.
>
>This  was  just  a  plain  rip-off on Borland's part. I rang them and asked
>where  were  my  API  manuals.  They  said  they  weren't  included  in the
>upgrade.  I  asked  if the windows API manuals were included as part of the
>full  package  for  BC++  3.1.  They said that they were. I then asked what
>was  the  *full*  upgrade  price  that  included the manuals. They said you
>have  the  full upgrade. I said where are my manuals then? They said for an
>extra  19  quid  they  could  send me the manuals. I said ok, so the *full*
>upgrade  cost  is  actually 39.95+19.95? They said: no, the full upgrade is
>only  39.95.  I gave up by then. I must say they train their sales staff in
>doublespeak particularly well.

They are rather strange. I bought the full C++ and app frameworks package,
and it came with a coupon for a free set of API docs *or* the Open
Architecture Handbook. I got the API docs, but they are for Windows 3.0
I believe. 

Maybe they have an upgrade to the documentation available separately? : ]


-- 
..though I respect that a lot, I'd be fired if that were my job, after 
killing Jason off and countless screaming argonauts... (They Might Be Giants)
Paul R. Potts, Software Designer --- potts@itl.itd.umich.edu <--- me!
From: "gord armstrong" <gord.armstrong@canrem.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: gem font format?
Date: 31 Jul 92 15:31:33 EST
Reply-To: "gord armstrong" <gord.armstrong@canrem.com>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Canada Remote Systems

To: comp.os.msdos.programmer

I want to write a simple GUI package for the OS/2 environment in the
CGA 640x200 mode (yeah, I know...higher res later on). I need a least
2 font sizes, an 8pt and 15pt (approx).

From what I've seen, the GEM fonts look good in the CGA mode, though
they're not scalable (as far as I know??) and there's also tons of
fonts around. Besides Ventura, these fonts are also used by GENUS
in their GX TEXT program (they use a .GFT suffix).

What I'd like to know if anyone has the format of the GEM font.
Someone told me what I want is the "GEM font format by Digital
Research v3.0 in unpacked format". I don't know what 'unpacked
format' means?

If anyone has the GEM format, may I have a copy please? Any
source code would be a bonus (DOS or OS/2). Thanks.

gord
---------------------------------------------------------------------
gord.armstrong@canrem.com
--
Canada Remote Systems  - Toronto, Ontario/Detroit, MI
World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044
From: eomc40@festival.ed.ac.uk (M Allan)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Colour PAL programming
Summary: Some details
Keywords: Colour PAL programming
Date: 24 Jul 92 13:54:55 GMT
Distribution: comp

Send correspondance to : Frank Klemm at pfk@de.uni-jena.rz.hpux

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the 16 color modes the colors are not direct translated to the DAC.
The ATC will translate the colors in the following theme (reprogr.):

 Color in 16 color modes        # of color in the DAC (standard)  
        0                       0
        ...                     ...
        5                       5
        6                       20
        7                       7
        8                       56
        ...                     ...
        15                      63

If more infos necessary, recall me.

Frank

PS:
If 100 more request about color pal programming follows, I make a general list
for posting every week with examples!!!!!!!
From: kimd@acsu.buffalo.edu (Donghyo Kim)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Lahey FORTRAN 5.0
Date: 25 Jul 92 18:44:43 GMT
Organization: UB


Is there anyone who runs Lahey's FORTRAN 5.0 in OS/2 DOS box?
They claims it supports DPMI 0.9 and 1.0 spec with Pahr Lap's DOS
Extender and it can be run inside WIN3.X.
If so, can it be run inside OS/2 DOS box?

Thanks in advance.
-- 
   Donghyo Kim                             W) 716-636-2120           
   Northwestern Univ.                     dhkim@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
   SUNY at Buffalo                         kimd@acsu.buffalo.edu
From: snewton@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Steven E. Newton)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Borland or MS C++ Which is Better?
Summary: MS C++ experience OK
Date: 31 Jul 1992 14:24:08 GMT
Organization: UT Health Science Center Houston

In article <1992Jul30.164712.202165@uctvax.uct.ac.za> brrian04@uctvax.uct.ac.za writes:
>Has anyone used both Borland C++ 3 and MS C++ 7?  I'm wondering how they
>compare.  Which is a better overall for writing both DOS and Windows code?
>Any information on these two products would be appreciated.  
>
>Thanks
>brrian04@uctvax.uct.ac.za

We have a couple of medium-sized programs we support here and one large
one.  Prior to upgrading to MS C/C++ 7 we had been using MSC 5.1 for
development.  There were two noticable improvements in the code built
with 7.0.

First, by using the /Gy function-level linking option (and changing no
other compile options) the executables were a bit smaller.  Actually 15%
smaller in the case of our DOS Wais client, because the code is built on
top of the generic wais distribution, and there are a *lot* of routines
in the various lower-level protocol modules that are never called by a
client -- they are used only by servers.  This reduced the executable
from 143K to 125K.  The others were not so dramatic, but were still more
compact.

Second, the text-mode screen handling routines in conio.h -- _textout(), 
_settextposition(), and _clearscreen() -- are a bit faster, making the
program appear to run faster, even if it really isn't.

I develop from the command line rather than use the Progammer's
Workbench, so I can't evaluate that.

Optimization seems to be a bit more reliable now than it was in 5.1.

Steve
-- 
+      +      +      +      +      +      +    |snewton@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu
         The map is the territory/             |Nobody else speaks for me,
       The map is not the territory.           |and I speak for no one else.
                                               |     +     +     +     +     +
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer,news.answers
From: brown@NCoast.ORG (Stan Brown)
Subject: comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ diff 1 of 4
Expires: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 15:48:40 GMT
Organization: Oak Road Systems, Cleveland Ohio USA
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 15:48:38 GMT
Followup-To: comp.os.msdos.programmer

Archive-name: msdos-programmer-faq/diff1
Last-modified: 21 July 1992


As the FAQ list is quite long, I'm posting diffs for those of you who
already have copies of last month's edition.  If you want the complete
list, don't worry: I'm posting it at about the same time but as a
separate thread: look for "comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ part" in the
Subject line.

As usual, I've omitted trivial diffs, those involving only formatting
and punctuation, and those that show renumbered Qs with no text change.


- 12>Last-modified: 25 June 1992
+ 12>Last-modified: 19 July 1992

- 63>    202. How do I fix "stack plus data exceed 64K"?
+ 63>    202. How do I fix "automatic data segment exceeds 64K" or "stack
+ 64>         plus data exceed 64K"?

+150>Legalistic stuff
+152>This article is not in the public domain, but it may be redistributed so
+153>long as this notice, and the information on obtaining the latest copy of
+154>this list, are retained.  The code fragments may be used freely; credit
+155>would be appreciated but is not required.
+157>            Copyright (C) 1992  Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems
-148>Disclaimers:  I have tested all the code included below, but your
-149>machine may not work the same as mine, and my testing may not be
-150>perfect.  THERE IS NO WARRANTY ON THE CODE.  All code fragments are in
-151>public domain and you may use them freely, though a credit would be
-152>nice!  Also:  the mention of particular books or programs must not be
-153>construed to reflect unfavorably on any that are not mentioned.
-156>Acknowledgements
+159>THERE IS NO WARRANTY ON THE CODE.  I have tested all the code included
+160>below, but your machine may not work the same as mine, and my testing
+161>may not be perfect.
+163>The mention of particular books or programs must not be construed to
+164>reflect unfavorably on any that are not mentioned.

new  Acknowledgements: B.Haible, Karl Riedling

-- 
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems                      brown@Ncoast.ORG
From: falk@peregrine.Sun.COM (Ed Falk)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: MY problem? ...or Borland's? (also on comp.lang.c)
Date: 28 Jul 92 07:08:22 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: peregrine

In article <1992Jul25.163852.19770@uwm.edu> rca@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Robert C Allender) writes:
> [character array mysteriously gets trashed]
>
>main() {
>  char drive, *c;
>    :
>  c = scrollbox(drive,61,10);  <---- This gets a directory, etc. 
>    :
>  list_dir(c);                   <-- by this point the array values are GONE.

I strongly suspect that "c = scrollbox(...);" is the culprit.  scrollbox()
is returning a pointer to a character array, but where did this array
come from?  Does scrollbox look like this:?

	char *
	scrollbox(...)
	{
		char	array[80] ;

		blahblah ;

		return array ;
	}

If so, there's your problem.  "array" is allocated on the fly from the
stack when scrollbox() is entered.  When scrollbox() becomes free again,
"array" is returned to free space and a pointer to it is now a pointer
to gibberish.  The array contains the valid data for awhile, but the
first function to come along and re-use that stack space will trash
it.  Instead, you should do:

	char *
	scrollbox(...)
	{
		static char array[80] ;

		blahblah ;

		return array ;
	}

or

	char *
	scrollbox(...)
	{
		char *array = malloc(80) ;

		blahblah ;

		return array ;
	}

		-ed falk, sun microsystems
		 sun!falk, falk@sun.com
	terrorist, cryptography, DES, drugs, cipher, secret, decode,
	DSS, FBI, NSA, CIA, NRO, SDI, communist, proletariat.
Xref: sparky comp.os.msdos.programmer:8067 comp.sys.ibm.pc:317
From: pierre.darmon%acc1bbs@ssr.com (Pierre Darmon) 
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Beta testers wanted for a 4-bar linkage application
Date: 23 Jul 92 23:39:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: Advanced Computer Concepts BBS, New Rochelle, NY 914-654-1981
Reply-To: pierre.darmon%acc1bbs@ssr.com (Pierre Darmon) 

Keywords: 4-bar linkages, beta testers, DXF, AutoCAD


MECADAR Technologies is looking for additional beta testers for a
software product. The application is a design tool for mechanical
engineers to assist them in the design of 4-bar linkages. It requires
a PC (from XT to 486) with a graphics adapter (CGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules,
... ) and a printer (parallel or serial). Expanded memory is a plus but
not required. The software runs under DOS 3.0 or later. The application
can write DXF files that can later be read by AutoCAD.

If you are interested send us a note explaining why you think you would
make a good beta tester for this application. Also specify the hardware
you will be running it on.

                      MECADAR Technologies Inc.
                      250 Garth Road, Suite 7B3
                      Scarsdale, New York 10583

                      Attn: Pierre Darmon

or fax to: (914) 723-4613.

If you require more information call Pierre Darmon at (914) 723-4124.
Thank you.

Pierre Darmon
MECADAR Technologies Inc.

acc1bbs!pierre.darmon@ssr.com