Subj : Re: cputs does not work in graphics-modi ?
To   : borland.public.cpp.borlandcpp
From : Ed Mulroy
Date : Fri Sep 23 2005 01:36 am

Ok, let me put it another way.

- I know what the PC's were like back then.  I designed several of them and 
in the process examined many of the others in detail.  Many machines do not 
properly report cursor positions in terms of text lines when in non 
text-modes, graphics modes.  The BIOS on those machines does not always 
properly correlate with the video card.  While I have not noticed what you 
say when I read Ralf Brown's list, what I am speaking of is what is, not 
what someone wrote.

- You are using a compiler form 17 years ago and pitching a fit about it not 
doing what you HOPE it would do.  I suspect that the documentation does not 
say it will do what you want.  On top of that you say that you do even have 
the debugger.  Both why you do not have one and how you can expect to 
develop without a debugger is beyond me.  One came with your copy of MSDOS 
or PCDOS and two more came with the compiler.

The compiler is from SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.  It is not going to change.  If 
you don't like the BGI fonts then write your own.  If you don't like the way 
the functions provided by the compiler work, then write ones that work 
however you want them to work.

> R.Wieser wrote in message
> news:433344d0@newsgroups.borland.com...
>
>> Only some motherboard BIOS and video board implementations
>> have the ability to write characters using the text mode calls
>> when in graphics mode.
>
> Hmmm ...   That's not what my experience is, nor what my copy
> of Ralf Brown's int 10h listing shows ....
>
>> If you examine the manuals that came with Turbo C you will
>> find that the Borland Graphics Interface or BGI provides the
>> ability to write graphics mode programs.  Among those
>> functions in the BGI are ones which allow writing text to a
>> graphics screen.
>
> Have you seen how *ugly* (and or large) those fonts are ?   The
> minimal font is a (too small) 8x8 point, and it and the others
> don't scale well (only multiplications of the origional size
> are permitted). The standard font used in bios-writes looks a
> *lot* better. :-)
>
>> The runtime library also provides a set of functions for text
>> mode direct screen handling, the functions whose prototypes
>> are in CONIO.H.
>
> If you mean the functions that use BIOS-calls when
> "directvideo" is set to Zero, yes, I found them (after Bob
> pointed me to the "directvideo" variable).
>
>> A variable is provided to force some of the text mode direct
>> screen handling functions to use BIOS calls.  It is useful on
>> machines which support such activity.   Assuming that, as a
>> developer, you purchased the runtime library source package,
>> you can examine that to see what is actually done by those
>> routines.
>
> Sorry, I've got the run-time files only (standard TC 2.0
> package). Ofcourse, DEBUG could help me a great deal. :-)
>
>> The CONIO.H functions have been stable for 20 years.  If
>> setting the variable fails to cause the functions to perform
>> on a given machine, the code to suspect is that in the BIOS
>> ROMs, video board ROMs and character generator ROMs.
>
> Untill Bob pointed me in the right direction I was not even
> aware that CONIO was able to use BIOS-calls for it's
> screen-output.
>
> But that (currently) leaves one thing to wish for : locating
> the cursor on lines 26 .... 30 in a (TC-supported) 12h
> video-mode (which it still refuses to do). :-)

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