Three C questions

[anon856525]

Hello

I am seeking the best way (speed and portability) to program
mode 13h (320 x 200 256 colors), and mode X.

I am using Borland's Turbo C ver 3.0 for MS DOS.
With Borland product, I can not find a BGI driver for this mode.
I know there are built in support for the other VGA modes
(640 x 200 x 16 colors), (640 x 350 x 16 colors).. but I am not
interested int those.

What are your suggestions. Do I have to write my own C and ASM
routines
to do Mode 13h and Mode X? I could not find an updated BGI driver
from Borland.

Secondly, I am thinking about porting all of the MS DOS code to
Windows 95.
I would appreciate some code design tips to reduce the amount of
work rewriting video code from DOS to Windows.

I know MS C compiler has Mode 13h support built in, but I do not
have MS C compiler. By the way, is there Mode X support in MS C
compiler
ver 7.0.

I am also having problems - I need to have around 30 files open
simultaneously in one program, but I only succeed in opening 20 and
then fopen fails. Does anyone have any idea what the problem should
be?

Thanks.

 

[CBFalconer]

.... snip ...

I am also having problems - I need to have around 30 files open
simultaneously in one program, but I only succeed in opening 20 and
then fopen fails. Does anyone have any idea what the problem should
be?

This is all off-topic for c.l.c. Try a newsgroup that deals with
DOS.

BTW, I believe adding "files = 35" in config.sys will do.

 

[Regan Revised]

Hello

I am seeking the best way (speed and portability) to program
mode 13h (320 x 200 256 colors), and mode X.

I am using Borland's Turbo C ver 3.0 for MS DOS.
With Borland product, I can not find a BGI driver for this mode.
I know there are built in support for the other VGA modes
(640 x 200 x 16 colors), (640 x 350 x 16 colors).. but I am not
interested int those.

What are your suggestions. Do I have to write my own C and ASM
routines
to do Mode 13h and Mode X? I could not find an updated BGI driver
from Borland.

Secondly, I am thinking about porting all of the MS DOS code to
Windows 95.
I would appreciate some code design tips to reduce the amount of
work rewriting video code from DOS to Windows.

I know MS C compiler has Mode 13h support built in, but I do not
have MS C compiler. By the way, is there Mode X support in MS C
compiler
ver 7.0.

I am also having problems - I need to have around 30 files open
simultaneously in one program, but I only succeed in opening 20 and
then fopen fails. Does anyone have any idea what the problem should
be?

Thanks.

Can you describe Mode 13h and Mode X abstractly?


--

Reagan Revision

To sum up: 1. The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10,000 revolutions a
minute. 2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. 3. Religion is the
theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride.
-- H L Mencken, "Coda," in Smart Set (New York, Dec. 1920; repr. in A
Mencken Chrestomathy, pt. 1, 1949).

 

[anon856525]

If there is no driver, I fear the answer is yes...
What else?

Hi,

thanks for the reply. I thought there could be a website run by users
that would have drivers...

I've been trying to find Borland's DOS support email address or phone
number, but it doesn't seem to be on their website. Does anyone know
who at Borland I should contact to ask about this?

Why not going to windows XP? You will have to
port it later to windows xp anyway...

Well my machine only has 16 MB of RAM and a 200 MHZ processor, which
is quite far below Windows XP minimum specs - do you think it would
run OK? I wouldn't think so.

Forget about those DOS modes then, and program
graphics under windows. It is much easier, and
you do not need to write any drivers.

I guess the advantage of DOS is greater portability - I mean, Windows
computers can run DOS programs but DOS computers can't run Windows
programs.

Also it's much simpler on DOS where you can just write to video memory
directly instead of having to use a complicated and restrictive API.

Any answer to this?

There is a parameter in config.sys if I remember correctly that
specifies the number of files... Give it a look.

Thanks, you're right. It seems to be set to a very low number by
default - bad!

 

[Kaz Kylheku]

Hello

I am seeking the best way (speed and portability) to program
mode 13h (320 x 200 256 colors), and mode X.

I am using Borland's Turbo C ver 3.0 for MS DOS.

Nice troll!

Secondly, I am thinking about porting all of the MS DOS code to
Windows 95.

That's not going to be released until August 1995, so you have plenty
of time.

 

[Kaz Kylheku]

Well my machine only has 16 MB of RAM and a 200 MHZ processor

Go to the alley behind the building; there is an awesome upgrade
system waiting for you in a dumpster.

 

[anon856525]

Hey look what's your problem? Plenty of people don't have unlimited
cash to buy new computers all the time and keep up with the latest
gadgets and dongles, so don't make fun.

DOS still has a huge installed base and it's definitely a viable
platform for C development. IMO YMMV.

 

[Ian Collins]

[Please don't top-post]

Hey look what's your problem? Plenty of people don't have unlimited
cash to buy new computers all the time and keep up with the latest
gadgets and dongles, so don't make fun.

The point was machine with an order of magnitude better performance can
be had for a song or even for free these days...

 

[Mark McIntyre]

Hello

I am seeking the best way (speed and portability) to program
mode 13h (320 x 200 256 colors), and mode X.

Golly. I haven't seen anyone trying to use those old CGA video modes
since the early nineties!

What are your suggestions. Do I have to write my own C and ASM
routines

You can't do this in Standard C, and under Win2K or later, you won't be
able to use interrupts directly either. You'll need to ask some borland
experts in a borland group, and possibly some DOS experts, if you can
find them

I am also having problems - I need to have around 30 files open
simultaneously in one program, but I only succeed in opening 20 and
then fopen fails. Does anyone have any idea what the problem should
be?

Read your DOS manual for the FILES directive. And ask furthr DOS related
questions in a DOS programming group...

 

[Randy Howard]

[Please don't top-post]

Hey look what's your problem? Plenty of people don't have unlimited
cash to buy new computers all the time and keep up with the latest
gadgets and dongles, so don't make fun.

The point was machine with an order of magnitude better performance can
be had for a song or even for free these days...

I've given P3's to goodwill in the last year, all had a gig or more of
RAM in them.

 

[Randy Howard]

Golly. I haven't seen anyone trying to use those old CGA video modes
since the early nineties!


You can't do this in Standard C, and under Win2K or later, you won't be
able to use interrupts directly either. You'll need to ask some borland
experts in a borland group, and possibly some DOS experts, if you can
find them

Find Ray Duncan's old book, I think he covers it in detail, but it's
been a long time since I cracked it open, and I can't find it atm.

 

[Coos Haak]

Op Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:36:56 +0000 schreef Mark McIntyre:

Golly. I haven't seen anyone trying to use those old CGA video modes
since the early nineties!

According to Ralf Brown's Interrupt List, it was VGA. And the fact that the
whole page fitted in one 64 KB segment helped a lot ;-)
Many games in those day used this mode.

 

[CBFalconer]

Hey look what's your problem? Plenty of people don't have unlimited
cash to buy new computers all the time and keep up with the latest
gadgets and dongles, so don't make fun.

DOS still has a huge installed base and it's definitely a viable
platform for C development. IMO YMMV.

He gave you good advice. Those machines are available all the
time. Free.

Please do not top-post. Your answer belongs after (or intermixed
with) the quoted material to which you reply, after snipping all
irrelevant material. See the following links:

<http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html>
<http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html>
<http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html>
<http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/> (taming google)
<http://members.fortunecity.com/nnqweb/> (newusers)

 

[Kaz Kylheku]

Hey look what's your problem? Plenty of people don't have unlimited
cash to buy new computers all the time and keep up with the latest
gadgets and dongles, so don't make fun.

Where did I say anything about needing cash? I can get a much better
computer than yours from someone for free. In fact, I could probably
charge for the service of hauling it away.

In fact, about six years ago I got, for free, a machine with two 400
Mhz Celerons and 128 megs of RAM.

I'm calling your bullshit, troll boy.

DOS still has a huge installed base

Not any installed base that would be a viable target market for new
DOS games, or any new software, really.

and it's definitely a viable platform for C development.

What would you know about viable? In the real world, viable
development means making a decent living. The people doing viable game
development today are not doing it with DOS, and don't dick around
with 16 Mb computers running Windows 95 when they come home.

 

[Jack Klein]

This is all off-topic for c.l.c. Try a newsgroup that deals with
DOS.

BTW, I believe adding "files = 35" in config.sys will do.

Ah, the hazard of answering off-topic posts...

That modification to config.sys won't do with those old Borland
compilers.

--
Jack Klein
Home: http://JK-Technology.Com
FAQs for
comp.lang.c http://c-faq.com/
comp.lang.c++ http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/
alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++
http://www.club.cc.cmu.edu/~ajo/docs/FAQ-acllc.html

 

[Mark McIntyre]

Op Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:36:56 +0000 schreef Mark McIntyre:


According to Ralf Brown's Interrupt List, it was VGA.

Indeed - CGA was only 16 colours.
Days of yore.

 

[Syren Baran]

Indeed - CGA was only 16 colours.
Days of yore.

Nope. CGA only had four colors.
Either you mean EGA or hi-res VGA.

 

[Ioannis Vranos]

Well my machine only has 16 MB of RAM and a 200 MHZ processor, which
is quite far below Windows XP minimum specs - do you think it would
run OK? I wouldn't think so.

Try to install one of those Linux mini distributions. In this way your
programs will also run in larger Linux machines, and if you use portable
libraries your programs will also be able to be compiled for Windows.

http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Mini_Distributions/

 

[Ioannis Vranos]

Where did I say anything about needing cash? I can get a much better
computer than yours from someone for free. In fact, I could probably
charge for the service of hauling it away.

In fact, about six years ago I got, for free, a machine with two 400
Mhz Celerons and 128 megs of RAM.

I think you should relax. If this was the case, in undeveloped/under
development countries, then we would not need the "one laptop per child"
project.

 

[Ioannis Vranos]

Golly. I haven't seen anyone trying to use those old CGA video modes
Nope. CGA only had four colors.
Either you mean EGA or hi-res VGA.

If I recall correctly, VGA had 256 colours.