Archive-name: msdos-programmer-faq/part1 Last modified: 13 June 1993 This is the FAQ list (Frequently Asked Questions list) for the newsgroup comp.os.msdos.programmer. Parts 2 through 4 of this article are posted as followups in the same thread. Starting 2 Feb 1993, I mark new and revised answers with "new:" or "rev:" and the change date. If the posting date shown above is more than four weeks in the past, see instructions in part 4 of this list for how to get an updated copy. (A separate article, posted before this one, holds the changes from the previous edition. Look for the subject line "comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ diffs".) FAQ lists are intended to reduce the noise level in their newsgroups that results from the repetition of the same questions, correct answers, wrong answers, corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the corrections, debate, etc. This list should serve as a repository of the canonical "best" answers to the questions in it. The names of folks who have helped to improve this FAQ list follow the table of contents. If you know a better answer or even a slight change that improves an answer, please tell me! (Use email, please. Traffic in this group is high, and I may miss a relevant posted article.) Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cleveland, Ohio, USA brown@ncoast.org Search tips =========== To search for specific topics: See the list of questions in the Contents section (immediately below) to find which article (part 2, 3, or 4) you need. Then, in that part, search for that question number. For example, while you're reading part 2 of this list, the trn newsreader command "gQ203" goes to Q203. To skip one topic and go to the next: Search for "Q" starting in column 1. In trn and similar newsreaders, the command "g^Q" does that. If your newsreader doesn't support searches, you can extract these articles to a file and use your favorite editor's search commands. Contents--part 2 of 4 ===================== section 1. General questions 101. Why won't my code work? 102. What is this newsgroup about? 103. What's the difference from comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer? 104. Is comp.os.msdos.programmer available as a mailing list? 105. What other newsgroups should I know about? section 2. Compile and link 201. What the heck is "DGROUP > 64K"? 202. How do I fix "automatic data segment exceeds 64K" or "stack plus data exceed 64K"? 203. Will Borland C code and Microsoft C code link together? 204. Why did my program bomb at run time with "floating point formats not linked"? 205. Why did my program bomb with "floating point not loaded"? 206. How can I change the stack size in Borland's C compilers? 207. What's the format of an .OBJ file? 208. What's the format of an .EXE header? 209. What's the difference between .COM and .EXE formats? section 3. Keyboard 301. How can I read a character without echoing it to the screen, and without waiting for the user to press the Enter key? 302. How can I find out whether a character has been typed, without waiting for one? 303. How can I disable Ctrl-C/Ctrl-Break and/or Ctrl-Alt-Del? 304. How can I disable the print screen function? 305. How can my program turn NumLock (CapsLock, ScrollLock) on/off? 306. How can I speed up the keyboard's auto-repeat? 307. What is the SysRq key for? 308. How can my program tell what kind of keyboard is on the system? 309. How can I tell if input, output, or stderr has been redirected? 310. How can I increase the size of the keyboard buffer? Contents--part 3 of 4 ===================== section 4. Disks and files 401. What drive was the PC booted from? 402. How can I boot from drive b:? 403. Which real and virtual disk drives are valid? 404. How can I make my single floppy drive both a: and b:? 405. Why won't my C program open a file with a path? 406. How can I redirect printer output to a file? 407. How can I redirect the output of a batch file? 408. How can my program open more files than DOS's limit of 20? 409. How can I read, create, change, or delete the volume label? 410. How can I get the disk serial number? 411. What's the format of .OBJ, .EXE., .COM files? 412. How can I flush the software disk cache? section 5. Serial ports (COM ports) 501. How do I set my machine up to use COM3 and COM4? 502. How do I find the I/O address of a COM port? 503. But aren't the COM ports always at I/O addresses 3F8, 2F8, 3E8, and 2E8? 504. How do I configure a COM port and use it to transmit data? section 6. Other hardware questions and problems 601. Which 80x86 CPU is running my program? 602. How can a C program send control codes to my printer? 603. How can I redirect printer output to a file? 604. Which video adapter is installed? 605. How do I switch to 43- or 50-line mode? 606. How can I find the Microsoft mouse position and button status? 607. How can I access a specific address in the PC's memory? 608. How can I read or write my PC's CMOS memory? 609. How can I access memory beyond 640K? 610. Where can I find a list of 80x86 opcodes? section 7. Other software questions and problems 701. How can a program reboot my PC? 702. How can I time events with finer resolution than the system clock's 55 ms (about 18 ticks a second)? 703. How can I find the error level of the previous program? 704. How can a program set DOS environment variables? 705. How can I change the switch character to - from /? 706. Why does my interrupt function behave strangely? 707. How can I write a TSR (terminate-stay-resident) utility? 708. How can I write a device driver? 709. What can I use to manage versions of software? 710. What's this "null pointer assignment" after my C program executes? 711. How can my program tell if it's running under Windows? 712. How do I copyright software that I write? Contents--part 4 of 4 ===================== section A. Downloading A01. What are Simtel, garbo, and wustl? A02. I have no ftp access. How can I get files from the archives? A03. Can I get archives on CD-ROM? A04. Where do I find program ? A05. How can I check Simtel or garbo before I post a request for a program? A06. How do I download and decode a program I found? A07. Where is UUDECODE? A08. Why do I get errors when extracting from a ZIP file I downloaded? section B. Vendors and products B01. How can I contact Borland? B02. How can I contact Microsoft? B03. What's the current version of UNZIP? B04. What's in Borland Pascal/Turbo Pascal 7.0? B05. What's in Microsoft Visual C++? B06. Where is Microsoft C 8.0? section C. More information C01. Are there any good on-line references for PC hardware components? C02. Are there any good on-line references for PC interrupts? C03. What and where is "Ralf Brown's interrupt list"? C04. Where can I find lex, yacc, and language grammars? C05. What's the best book to learn programming? C06. Where are FAQ lists archived? C07. Where can I get the latest copy of this FAQ list? C08. How do I use ftp? Acknowledgements ================ Many articles posted in comp.os.msdos.programmer sparked ideas or provided information for the first version of this list. Though I am responsible for any errors, thanks are due to the following for posted articles or private email that I used in subsequent editions: Jamshid Afshar, Mark Aitchison, Sanjay Aiyagari, George Almasi, Aaron Auseth, Preston Bannister, Denis Beauregard, Mike Black, Jon Brinkmann, Glynn Brooks, Paul Brooks, Ralf Brown, Shaun Burnett, Raymond Chen, Alan Drew, Paul Ducklin, Gary Dueck, Roland Eriksson, Markus Fischer, George Forsman, Vincent Giovannone, B.Haible, Janos Haide, Klaus Hartnegg, Kris Heidenstrom, Tom Haapanen, Joel Hoffman, Joe Huffman, Michael Holin, Mike Iarrobino, Byrial Jensen, Rune Jorgensen, Ajay Kamdar, Everett Kaser, Jeff Kellam, Jen Kilmer, Reinhard Kirchner, Dave Kirsch, Samuel Ko, Benjamin Lee, Sidney Markowitz, Jim Marks, Dimitri Matzarakis, Fred McCall, Ken McKee, Tom Milner, Bill Moore, Duncan Murdoch, Steve Murphy, Mert Nickerson, David Nugent, John Oldenburg, David Pape, Keith Petersen, Karl Riedling, Arthur Rubin, Gerald Ruderman, Timo Salmi, Tapio Sand, John Schmid, Russell Schulz, Ajay Shah, Steve Summit, Tom Swingle, Anders Thulin, Curt Tilmes, Rick Watkins, Ya-Gui Wei, Joe Wells, Gregory Youngblood, khill@vax1.umkc.edu New contributors this issue: Legalistic stuff ================ This article is not in the public domain, but it may be redistributed so long as this notice, the acknowledgements, and the information on obtaining the latest copy of this list are retained and no fee is charged. The code fragments may be used freely; credit would be polite. Copyright (C) 1993 Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems. All rights reserved. THERE IS NO WARRANTY ON THE CODE. I have tested all the code included below, but your machine may not work the same as mine, and my testing may not be perfect. (Except where otherwise noted, I tested the code with both BC++ 2.0 and MSC 5.0.) The mention of particular books or programs must not be construed to reflect unfavorably on any that are not mentioned. (continued in part 2) -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems brown@Ncoast.ORG Can't find FAQ lists? ftp to 'rtfm.mit.edu' and look in /pub/usenet (or email me >>> with valid reply-to address <<< for instructions). Archive-name: msdos-programmer-faq/part2 Last-modified: 13 June 1993 (continued from part 1) (no warranty on the code or information) If the posting date is more than six weeks in the past, see instructions at the end of this article for how to get an updated copy. Copyright (C) 1993 Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems. All rights reserved. section 1. General questions ============================ Q101. Why won't my code work? First you need to try to determine whether the problem is in your use of the programming language or in your use of MSDOS and your PC hardware. (Your manual should tell you which features are standard and which are vendor- or MSDOS- or PC-specific. You _have_ read your manual carefully, haven't you?) If the feature that seems to be working wrong is something related to your PC hardware or to the internals of MS-DOS, this group is the right place to ask. (Please check this list first, to make sure your question isn't already answered.) On the other hand, if your problem is with the programming language, the comp.lang hierarchy (including comp.lang.pascal and comp.lang c) is probably a better resource. Please read the other group's FAQ list thoroughly before posting. (These exist in comp.lang.c, comp.lang.c++, comp.lang.modula3, comp.lang.lisp, comp.lang.perl; they may exist in other groups as well.) It's almost never a good idea to crosspost between this group and a language group. Before posting in either place, try to make your program as small as possible while still exhibiting the bad behavior. Sometimes this alone is enough to show you where the trouble is. Also edit your description of the problem to be as short as possible. This makes it look more like you tried to solve the problem on your own, and makes people more inclined to try to help you. When you do post a question, it's good manners to say "email please; I'll post a summary." Then everybody else in the group doesn't have to read ten virtually identical responses. Of course, then you have to follow through. A summary is not simply pasting together all the email you received. Instead, write your own (brief) description of the solution: this is the best way to make sure you really understand it. Definitely don't repost people's cute signatures. Q102. What is this newsgroup about? (rev: 11 Apr 1993) comp.os.msdos.programmer (comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer until September 1990) concerns programming for MS-DOS systems. The article "USENET Readership report for Mar 93" in news.lists shows 58,000 readers of this newsgroup worldwide. Traffic was 1543 Kbytes (exclusive of crossposts), comprised in 903 articles. Much of our traffic is about language products (chiefly from Borland and Microsoft). More programming topics focus on C than on any one other language. Since most MS-DOS systems run on hardware that is roughly compatible with the IBM PC, on Intel 8088, 80188, or 80x86 chips, we tend to get a lot of questions and answers about programming other parts of the hardware. Q103. What's the difference from comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer? c.s.i.p.programmer is the old name of comp.os.msdos.programmer, and has been obsolete since September 1990. However, many systems have not removed the old group, or have removed it but aliased it to the new name. This means that some people still think they're posting to c.s.i.p.programmer even though they're actually posting to c.o.m.programmer. You can easily verify the non-existence of c.s.i.p.programmer by reference to the "List of Active Newsgroups" posted to news.groups. It's available as /pub/usenet/news.answers/active-newsgroups/part1 from the archives (see "Where are FAQ lists archived?" in section C, "More information"). Q104. Is comp.os.msdos.programmer available as a mailing list? (new: 2 Feb 1993) Sorry, no. Q105. What other newsgroups should I know about? (rev: 16 Mar 1993) Your best bet is to read the periodic information postings in the comp.binaries.ibm.pc newsgroup. Recommended: Starter kit Beginner's guide to binaries Please wait for these articles to come around; don't post a request. Or you can retrieve them from directory of rtfm.mit.edu (see "How do I download and decode a program I found? " in section A, "Downloads"). Also check out news.announce.newusers, even if you're not a new user. You may be surprised how much useful information is in the monthly postings there. Lots of old-timers also get useful stuff from news.newusers.questions, especially the periodic postings. Remember that it's good manners to subscribe to any newsgroup and read it for a while before you post a question. When you post, it's also good manners to ask for replies to be emailed and then to post a summary, which you've edited down to the absolute minimum size. You may also be interested in the following newsgroups. Caution: Some of them have specialized charters; you'll probably get (and deserve) some flames if you post to an inappropriate group. - misc.forsale.computers.d and misc.forsale.computers.pc-clone are where you post notices of equipment, software, or computer books that you want to sell. Please don't post or crosspost those notices to comp.os.msdos.programmer. - comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools and ...misc (formerly part of comp.windows.ms.programmer): Similar to this group, but focus on programming for the MS-Windows platform. - comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware is for more hardware-oriented discussions of the machines that run DOS. - comp.binaries.ibm.pc.wanted: AFTER you have looked in the other groups, this is the place to post a request for a particular binary program. - comp.archives.msdos.announce (moderated) explains how to use the archive sites, especially garbo and Simtel, and lists files uploaded to them. Discussions belong in comp.archives.msdos.d, which replaced comp.binaries.ibm.pc.archives. - comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d is for discussions about programs posted in comp.binaries.ibm.pc, and only those programs. This is a good place to report bugs in the programs, but not to ask where to find them (see cbip.wanted, above). cbip.d is NOT supposed to be a general PC discussion group. - comp.sources.misc: a moderated group for source code for many computer systems. It tends to get lots of Unix stuff, but you may also pick up some DOS-compatible code here. - alt.sources: an unmoderated group for source code. Guidelines are posted periodically. - Turbo Vision is a mailing list, not a newsgroup; send email to listserv@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu if you want to subscribe. section 2. Compile and link =========================== Q201. What the heck is "DGROUP > 64K"? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) DGROUP is a link-time group of data segments, and the compiler typically generates code that expects DS to be pointing to DGROUP. (Exception: Borland's huge model has no DGROUP.) Here's what goes into DGROUP: - tiny model (all pointers near): DGROUP holds the entire program. - small and medium models (data pointers near): DGROUP holds all globals and static variables including string literals, plus the stack and the heap. - large, compact, and huge models in Microsoft (data pointers far): DGROUP holds only initialized globals and static variables including string literals, plus the stack and the near heap. - large and compact models in Borland (data pointers far): DGROUP holds initialized and uninitialized globals and static variables including string literals, but not the stack or heap. - huge model in Borland (data pointers far): there is no DGROUP, so the 64K limit doesn't apply. In all of the above, which is to say all six models in Microsoft C and all but huge in Borland C, DGROUP is limited to 64K including string literals (which are treated as static data). This limitation is due to the Intel CPU's segmented architecture. See the next Q for possible remedies. For more information, see topics like "memory models" and "memory management" in the index of your compiler manual. Also see ti738.asc, downloadable as part of pd1:bchelp10.zip at Simtel /pc/turbopas/bchelp10.zip at garbo, for an extended general discussion of memory usage in Borland C programs, of which much applies to any C compiler in DOS. Q202. How do I fix "automatic data segment exceeds 64K" or "stack plus data exceed 64K"? These messages are a variation of "DGROUP > 64K". For causes, please see the preceding Q. If you get this error in tiny model, your program is simply too big and you must use a different memory model. If you get this link error in models S, C, M, L, or Microsoft's H, there are some things you can do. (This error can't occur in Borland's huge model.) If you have one or two big global arrays, simply declare them far. The compiler takes this to mean that any references to them will use 32-bit pointers, so they'll be in separate segments and no longer part of DGROUP. Or you can use the /Gt[number] option with Microsoft or -Ff[=size] with Borland C++ 2.0 and up. This will automatically put variables above a certain size into their own segments outside of DGROUP. Yet another option is to change global arrays to far pointers. Then at the beginning of your program, allocate them from the far heap (_fmalloc in Microsoft, farmalloc in Borland). Finally, you can change to huge model (with Borland compilers, not Microsoft). Borland's H model still uses far pointers by default, but "sets aside the [64K] limit" and has no DGROUP group, according to the BC++ 2.0 Programmer's Guide. Microsoft's H model does use huge data pointers by default but retains DGROUP and its 64K limit, so switching to the H model doesn't buy you anything if you have DGROUP problems. Q203. Will Borland C code and Microsoft C code link together? (rev: 13 Feb 1993) Typically this question is asked by someone who owns compiler A and is trying to write code to link with a third-party library that was compiled under compiler B. The answer to the question is, Not in general. Here are some of the reasons: - "Helper" functions (undocumented functions for stack checking, floating-point arithmetic, and operations on longs) differ between the two compilers. - The compilers may embed instructions in the object code that tell the linker to look for their own run-time libraries. You can use the linker option that says to ignore such instructions: /n in TLINK, /NOD in the Microsoft linker (the one that comes with the C compiler, not the one that used to come with DOS). But getting around this problem will very likely just reveal other problems, like different helper functions, that have no easy solution. Those problems will generate link-time errors. Others may not show up until run time: - Borland's compact, large, and huge models don't assume DS=SS, but Microsoft's do. The -Fs option on the Borland compiler, or one of the /A options on Microsoft, should take care of this problem -- once you know that's what's going on. - Check conventions for ordering and packing structure members, and for alignment of various types on byte, word, paragraph, or other boundaries. Again, you can generally adjust your code to match if you know what conventions were used in compiling the "foreign" libraries. - Check the obvious and make sure that your code was compiled under the same memory model as the code you're trying to link with. (That's necessary, but no guarantee. Microsoft and Borland don't use exactly the same conventions for segments and groups, particularly in the larger memory models.) That said, there are some circumstances where you can link hybrids. Your best chance of success comes if you avoid longs and floating point, use only 16-bit pointers, suppress stack checking, and specify all libraries used in the link. Q204. Why did my program bomb at run time with "floating point formats not linked"? First, is that the actual message, or did it say "floating point not loaded"? If it was the latter, see the next Q. You're probably using a Borland compiler for C or C++ (including Turbo C and Turbo C++). Borland's compilers try to be smart and not link in the floating-point (f-p) library unless you need it. Alas, they all get the decision wrong. One common case is where you don't call any f-p functions, but you have %f or other f-p formats in scanf/printf calls. The cure is to call an f-p function, or at least force one to be present in the link. To do that, define this function somewhere in a source file but don't call it: static void forcefloat(float *p) { float f = *p; forcefloat(&f); } It doesn't have to be in the module with the main program, as long as it's in a module that will be included in the link. If you have Borland C++ 3.0, the README file documents a slightly less ugly work-around. Insert these statements in your program: extern unsigned _floatconvert; #pragma extref _floatconvert Q205. Why did my program bomb with "floating point not loaded"? That is Microsoft C's run-time message when the code requires a numeric coprocessor but your computer doesn't have one installed. If the program is yours, relink it using the xLIBCE or xLIBCA library (where x is the memory model). Q206. How can I change the stack size in Borland's C compilers? In Turbo C, Turbo C++, and Borland C++, you may not find "stack size" in the index but the global variable _stklen should be there. The manual will instruct you to put a statement like extern unsigned _stklen = 54321U; in your code, outside of any function. You must assign the value right in the extern statement; it won't work to assign a value at run time. (The "extern" in this context isn't ANSI C and ought not to be required, but the above statement is a direct quote from the Library Reference manual of Borland C++ 2.0.) The linker may give you a duplicate symbol warning, which you can ignore. Q207. What's the format of an .OBJ file? (rev: 1 May 1993) Here's what I've been told. I have verified the references marked "(verified)". - base .OBJ format: Intel's document number #121748-001, {8086 Relocatable Object Module Formats}. (Both Microsoft and Borland have extended the .OBJ format, as has IBM for OS/2; and according to the MS-DOS encyclopedia, Microsoft doesn't actually use all the listed formats.) - Microsoft-specific .OBJ formats: a 45-page article in the {MS-DOS Encyclopedia}, ISBN 1-55615-049-0 (verified). I am told there is also a "Microsoft Object Module Format (OMF)" Specification, printed 22 Nov 1991, from the Microsoft Languages Group. - Microsoft publishes an .OBJ spec in Windows help format (266K after unzipping). I'm not sure why it's in Windows help format, since it's one long document without hypertex links. Download it as /vendor/microsoft/developer-network/ctech/11-9.zip from ftp.uu.net (verified). - Borland-specific .OBJ formats: Open Architecture Handbook. The Borland Developer's Technical Guide, 1991, no ISBN. Chapter 2, "Object file contents", (pages 27-50) covers the comment records sent to the object file by Borland C++ version 3.0 and other Borland compilers. The comment records mostly contain information for the Borland debugger. - A "tutorial on the .OBJ format" comes with the VAL experimental linker, downloadable as pd1:val-link.arc at Simtel. Q208. What's the format of an .EXE header? See pages 349-350 of {PC Magazine}'s 30 June 1992 issue (xi:12) for the old and new formats. For a more detailed layout, look under INT 21 function 4B in Ralf Brown's interrupt list. Ralf Brown's list includes extensions for Borland's TLINK and Borland debugger info. Among the books that detail formats of executable files are {DOS Programmer's Reference: 2d Edition} by Terry Dettman and Jim Kyle, ISBN 0-88022-458-4; and {Microsoft MS-DOS Programmer's Reference}, ISBN 1-55615-329-5. Q209. What's the difference between .COM and .EXE formats? To oversimplify: a .COM file is a direct image of core, and an .EXE file will undergo some further relocation when it is run (and so it begins with a relocation header). A .COM file is limited to 64K for all segments combined, but an .EXE file can have as many segments as your linker will handle and be as large as RAM can take. The actual file extension doesn't matter. DOS knows that a file being loaded is in .EXE format if its first two bytes are MZ or ZM; otherwise it is assumed to be in .COM format. For instance, I am told that DR-DOS 6.0's COMMAND.COM is in .EXE format. section 3. Keyboard =================== Q301. How can I read a character without echoing it to the screen, and without waiting for the user to press the Enter key? The C compilers from Microsoft and Borland offer getch (or getche to echo the character); Turbo Pascal has ReadKey. In other programming languages, load 8 in register AH and execute INT 21; AL is returned with the character from standard input (possibly redirected). If you don't want to allow redirection, or you want to capture Ctrl-C and other special keys, use INT 16 with AH=10; this will return the scan code in AH and ASCII code (if possible) in AL, except that AL=E0 with AH nonzero indicates one of the grey "extended" keys was pressed. (If your BIOS doesn't support the extended keyboard, use INT 16 function 0 not 10.) Q302. How can I find out whether a character has been typed, without waiting for one? In Turbo Pascal, use KeyPressed. Both Microsoft C and Turbo C offer the kbhit( ) function. All of these tell you whether a key has been pressed. If no key has been pressed, they return that information to your program. If a keystroke is waiting, they tell your program that but leave the key in the input buffer. You can use the BIOS call, INT 16 function 01 or 11, to check whether an actual keystroke is waiting; or the DOS call, INT 21 function 0B, to check for a keystroke from stdin (subject to redirection). See Ralf Brown's interrupt list. Q303. How can I disable Ctrl-C/Ctrl-Break and/or Ctrl-Alt-Del? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) Several utilities are downloadable from pd1: at Simtel. In that directory, cadel.zip contains a TSR (with source code) to disable those keys. Also, keykill.arc contains two utilities: keykill.com lets you disable up to three keys of your choice, and deboot.com changes the boot key to leftShift-Alt-Del. C programmers who simply want to make sure that the user can't Ctrl-Break out of their program can use the ANSI-standard signal( ) function; the Borland compilers also offer ctrlbrk( ) for handling Ctrl-Break. However, if your program uses normal DOS input, the characters ^C will appear on the screen when the user presses Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break. There are many ways to work around that, including: use INT 21 function 7, which allows redirection but doesn't display the ^C (or echo any other character, for that matter); or use INT 16 function 0 or 10; or call _bios_keybrd( ) in MSC or bioskey( ) in BC++; or hook INT 9 to discard Ctrl-C and Ctrl-Break before the regular BIOS keyboard handler sees them; etc., etc. You should be aware that Ctrl-C and Ctrl-Break are processed quite differently internally. Ctrl-Break, like all keystrokes, is processed by the BIOS code at INT 9 as soon as the user presses the keys, even if earlier keys are still in the keyboard buffer: by default the handler at INT 1B is called. Ctrl-C is not special to the BIOS, nor is it special to DOS functions 6 and 7; it _is_ special to DOS functions 1 and 8 when at the head of the keyboard buffer. You will need to make sure BREAK is OFF to prevent DOS polling the keyboard for Ctrl-C during non-keyboard operations. Some good general references are {Advanced MS-DOS} by Ray Duncan, ISBN 1-55615-157-8; {8088 Assembler Language Programming: The IBM PC}, ISBN 0-672-22024-5, by Willen & Krantz; and {COMPUTE!'s Mapping the IBM PC}, ISBN 0-942386-92-2. Q304. How can I disable the print screen function? There are really two print screen functions: 1) print current screen snapshot, triggered by PrintScreen or Shift-PrtSc or Shift-grey*, and 2) turn on continuous screen echo, started and stopped by Ctrl-P or Ctrl-PrtSc. 1) Screen snapshot to printer The BIOS uses INT 5 for this. Fortunately, you don't need to mess with that interrupt handler. The standard handler, in BIOSes dated December 1982 or later, uses a byte at 0040:0100 (alias 0000:0500) to determine whether a print screen is currently in progress. If it is, pressing PrintScreen again is ignored. So to disable the screen snapshot, all you have to do is write a 1 to that byte. When the user presses PrintScreen, the BIOS will think that a print screen is already in progress and will ignore the user's keypress. You can re-enable PrintScreen by zeroing the same byte. Here's some simple code: void prtsc_allow(int allow) /* 0=disable, nonzero=enable */ { unsigned char far* flag = (unsigned char far*)0x00400100UL; *flag = (unsigned char)!allow; } 2) Continuous echo of screen to printer If ANSI.SYS is loaded, you can easily disable the continuous echo of screen to printer (Ctrl-P or Ctrl-PrtSc). Just redefine the keys by "printing" strings like these to the screen (BASIC print, C printf, Pascal Write statements, or ECHO command in batch files): <27>[0;114;"Ctrl-PrtSc disabled"p <27>[16;"^P"p Change <27> in the above to an Escape character, ASCII 27. If you haven't installed ANSI.SYS, I can't offer an easy way to disable the echo-screen-to-printer function. Please send any tested solutions to brown@ncoast.org and I'll add them to this list. Actually, you might not need to disable Ctrl-P and Ctrl-PrtSc. If your only concern is not locking up your machine, when you see the "Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail" prompt just press Ctrl-P again and then I. As an alternative, install one of the many print spoolers that intercept printer-status queries and always return "Printer ready". Q305. How can my program turn NumLock (CapsLock, ScrollLock) on or off? First, if you just don't want NumLock turned on when you reboot, check your system's setups. (Use Ctrl-Alt-Enter any time, or press a special key like Del at boot time, or run the setup program supplied with your system.) Many systems now have an option in setup to turn NumLock off at boot time. You need to twiddle bit 5, 6, or 4 of location 0040:0017. Here's some code: lck( ) turns on a lock state, and unlck( ) turns it off. (The status lights on some keyboards may not reflect the change. If yours is one, call INT 16 function 2, "get shift status", and that may update them. It will certainly do no harm.) #define NUM_LOCK (1 << 5) #define CAPS_LOCK (1 << 6) #define SCRL_LOCK (1 << 4) void lck(int shiftype) { char far* kbdstatus = (char far*)0x00400017UL; *kbdstatus |= (char)shiftype; } void unlck(int shiftype) { char far* kbdstatus = (char far*)0x00400017UL; *kbdstatus &= ~(char)shiftype; } Q306. How can I speed up the keyboard's auto-repeat? The keyboard speed has two components: delay (before a key that you hold down starts repeating) and typematic rate (the speed once the key starts repeating). Most BIOSes since 1986 let software change the delay and typematic rate by calling INT 16 function 3, "set typematic rate and delay"; see Ralf Brown's interrupt list. If you have DOS 4.0 or later, you can use the MODE CON command that you'll find in your DOS manual. On 83-key keyboards (mostly XTs), the delay and typematic rate can't easily be changed. According to the {PC Magazine} of 15 Jan 1991, page 409, to adjust the typematic rate you need "a memory-resident program which simply '[watches]' the keyboard to see if you're holding down a key ... and after a certain time [starts] stuffing extra copies of the held-down key into the buffer." No source code is given in that issue; but I'm told that the QUICKEYS utility that {PC} published in 1986 does this sort of watching; source and object code are downloadable in pd1:vol5n05.arc from Simtel. Q307. What is the SysRq key for? There is no standard use for the key. The BIOS keyboard routines in INT 16 simply ignore it; therefore so do the DOS input routines in INT 21 as well as the keyboard routines in libraries supplied with high-level languages. When you press or release a key, the keyboard triggers hardware line IRQ1, and the CPU calls INT 9. INT 9 reads the scan code from the keyboard and the shift states from the BIOS data area. What happens next depends on whether your PC's BIOS supports an enhanced keyboard (101 or 102 keys). If so, INT 9 calls INT 15 function 4F to translate the scan code. If the translated scan code is 54 hex (for the SysRq key) then INT 9 calls INT 15 function 85 and doesn't put the keystroke into the keyboard buffer. The default handler of that function does nothing and simply returns. (If your PC has an older BIOS that doesn't support the extended keyboards, INT 15 function 4F is not called. Early ATs have 84-key keyboards, so their BIOS calls INT 15 function 85 but nor 4F.) Thus your program is free to use SysRq for its own purposes, but at the cost of some programming. You could hook INT 9, but it's probably easier to hook INT 15 function 85, which is called when SysRq is pressed or released. Q308. How can my program tell what kind of keyboard is on the system? Ralf Brown's Interrupt List includes MEMORY.LST, a detailed breakdown by Robin Walker of the contents of the BIOS system block that starts at 0040:0000. Bit 4 of byte 0040:0096 is "1=enhanced keyboard installed". C code to test the keyboard type: char far *kbd_stat_byte3 = (char far *)0x00400096UL; if (0x10 & *kbd_stat_byte3) /* 101- or 102-key keyboard is installed */ {PC Magazine}'s 15 Jan 1991 issue suggests on page 412 that "for some clones [the above test] is not foolproof". If you use this method in your program you should provide the user some way to override this test, or at least some way to tell your program to assume a non-enhanced keyboard. The {PC Magazine} article suggests a different approach to determining the type of keyboard. Q309. How can I tell if input, output, or stderr has been redirected? (rev: 13 June 1993) Normally, input and output are associated with the console (i.e., with the keyboard and the screen, respectively). If either is not, you know that it has been redirected. Some source code to check this is available at the usual archive sites. If you program in Turbo Pascal, you'll want this downloadable collection of Turbo Pascal units: /pc/ts/tspa32*.zip at garbo pd1:tspa32*.zip at Simtel. (where the * is 70, 60, 55, 50, or 40 for Turbo Pascal 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, or 4.0 respectively.) Source code is not included. Also see the downloadable Frequently Asked Questions files by Timo Salmi: /pc/ts/tsfaqp12.zip at garbo pd1:tafaqp12.zip at Simtel. If you program in C, use isatty( ) if your implementation has it. Otherwise, pd1:is_con10.zip is downloadable from Simtel; it includes source code. Good references for the principles are {PC Magazine} 16 Apr 1991 (vol 10 nr 7) pg 374; Ray Duncan's {Advanced MS-DOS}, ISBN 1-55615-157-8, or Ralf Brown's interrupt list for INT 21 function 4400; and Terry Dettman and Jim Kyle's {DOS Programmer's Reference: 2d edition}, ISBN 0-88022-458-4, pp 602-603. Q310. How can I increase the size of the keyboard buffer? (new: 9 May 1993) I have tested only one of the many available device drivers that do this. That one has performed flawlessly for me in almost two years of use with MS-DOS 5 and Windows 3.1. It extends the keyboard buffer to 160 characters; it's downloadable as pd1:buf160_6.zip at Simtel. (continued in part 3) -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems brown@Ncoast.ORG Can't find FAQ lists? ftp to 'rtfm.mit.edu' and look in /pub/usenet (or email me >>> with valid reply-to address <<< for instructions). Archive-name: msdos-programmer-faq/part3 Last-modified: 13 June 1993 (continued from part 2) (no warranty on the code or information) If the posting date is more than six weeks in the past, see instructions in part 4 of this list for how to get an updated copy. Copyright (C) 1993 Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems. All rights reserved. section 4. Disks and files =========================== Q401. What drive was the PC booted from? Under DOS 4.0 or later, load 3305 hex into AX; do an INT 21. DL is returned with an integer indicating the boot drive (1=A:, etc.). Q402. How can I boot from drive b:? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) Downloadable shareware: pd1:boot_b.zip from Simtel /pc/bootutil/boot_b.zip from garbo. The included documentation says it works by writing a new boot sector on a disk in your a: drive that redirects the boot to your b: drive. If that doesn't work, you can always interchange your a: and b: drives by switching ribbon cables and changing the setup in your BIOS. From an article posted 27 Jan 1993 on another newsgroup: Take the "ribbon" connector, as you call it, and switch them. To double check, start at the end of the cable that connects to the motherboard or floppy controller. Follow the cable until you get to the first connector. Connect this to the drive you want to be b:. After this, there should be a few lines on the cable that get flipped left to right. (On most cables, they just cut the lines and physically reverse them. It should be quite obvious from looking at the cable.) Anyway, the connector after the pins get flipped right to left is the connector for your a: drive. Q403. Which real and virtual disk drives are valid? Use INT 21 function 29 (parse filename). Point DS:SI at a null- terminated ASCII string that contains the drive letter and a colon, point ES:DI at a 37-byte dummy FCB buffer, set AX to 2900h, and do an INT 21. On return, AL is FF if the drive is invalid, something else if the drive is valid. RAM disks and SUBSTed drives are considered valid. Unfortunately, the b: drive is considered valid even on a single- diskette system. You can check that special case by interrogating the BIOS equipment byte at 0040:0010. Bits 7-6 contain the one less than the number of diskette drives, so if those bits are zero you know that b: is an invalid drive even though function 29 says it's valid. Following is some code originally posted by Doug Dougherty, with my fix for the b: special case, tested only in Borland C++ 2.0 (in the small model): #include void drvlist(void) { char *s = "A:", fcb_buff[37]; int valid; for ( ; *s<='Z'; (*s)++) { _SI = (unsigned) s; _DI = (unsigned) fcb_buff; _ES = _DS; _AX = 0x2900; geninterrupt(0x21); valid = _AL != 0xFF; if (*s == 'B' && valid) { char far *equipbyte = (char far *)0x00400010UL; valid = (*equipbyte & (3 << 6)) != 0; } printf("Drive '%s' is %sa valid drive.\n", s, valid ? "" : "not "); } } Q404. How can I make my single floppy drive both a: and b:? Under any DOS since DOS 2.0, you can put the command assign b=a into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Then, when you type "DIR B:" you'll no longer get the annoying prompt to insert diskette B (and the even more annoying prompt to insert A the next time you type "DIR A:"). You may be wondering why anybody would want to do this. Suppose you use two different machines, maybe one at home and one at work. One of them has only a 3.5" diskette drive; the other machine has two drives, and b: is the 3.5" one. You're bound to type "dir b:" on the first one, and get the nuisance message Insert diskette for drive B: and press any key when ready. But if you assign drive b: to point to a:, you avoid this problem. Caution: there are a few commands, such as DISKCOPY, that will not work right on ASSIGNed or SUBSTed drives. See the DOS manual for the full list. Before typing one of those commands, be sure to turn off the mapping by typing "assign" without arguments. The DOS 5.0 manual says that ASSIGN is obsolete, and recommends the equivalent form of SUBST: "subst b: a:\". Unfortunately, if this command is executed when a: doesn't hold a diskette, the command fails. ASSIGN doesn't have this problem, so I must advise you to disregard that particular bit of advice in the DOS manual. Q405. Why won't my C program open a file with a path? You've probably got something like the following code: char *filename = "c:\foo\bar\mumble.dat"; . . . fopen(filename, "r"); The problem is that \f is a form feed, \b is a backspace, and \m is m. Whenever you want a backslash in a string constant in C, you must use two backslashes: char *filename = "c:\\foo\\bar\\mumble.dat"; This is a feature of every C compiler, because Dennis Ritchie designed C this way. It's a problem only on MS-DOS systems, because only DOS (and Atari ST/TT running TOS, I'm told) uses the backslash in directory paths. But even in DOS this backslash convention applies _only_ to string constants in your source code. For file and keyboard input at run time, \ is just a normal character, so users of your program would type in file specs at run time the same way as in DOS commands, with single backslashes. Another possibility is to code all paths in source programs with / rather than \ characters: char *filename = "c:/foo/bar/mumble.dat"; Ralf Brown writes that "All versions of the DOS kernel accept either forward or backslashes as directory separators. I tend to use this form more frequently than backslashes since it is easier to type and read." This applies to DOS function calls (and therefore to calls to the file library of every programming language), but not to DOS commands. Q406. How can I redirect printer output to a file? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) My personal favorite utility for this purpose is PRN2FILE from {PC Magazine}, downloadable as: pd1:prn2file.arc at Simtel /pc/printer/prn2file.zip at garbo. {PC Magazine} has given copies away as part of its utilities disks, so you may already have a copy. The directories mentioned above have lots of other utilities to redirect printer output. Q407. How can I redirect the output of a batch file? (new: 12 June 1993) Assuming the batch file is called batch.bat, to send its output (stdout) to another file, just invoke COMMAND.COM as a secondary command processor: command /c batch parameters_if_any >outfile Timo Salmi's notes on this and other batch tricks are downloadable: pd1:tsbat43.zip at Simtel /pc/ts/tsbat43.zip at garbo. Q408. How can my program open more files than DOS's limit of 20? (rev: 1 May 1993. This is a summary of an article Ralf Brown posted on 8 August 1992, with some additions from a Microsoft tech note.) There are separate limits on files and file handles. For example, DOS opens three files but five file handles: CON (stdin, stdout, and stderr), AUX (stdaux), and PRN (stdprn). The limit in FILES= in CONFIG.SYS is a system-wide limit on files opened by all programs (including the three that DOS opens and any opened by TSRs); each process has a limit of 20 handles (including the five that DOS opens). Example: CONFIG.SYS has FILES=40. Then program #1 will be able to open 15 file handles. Assuming that the program actually does open 15 handles pointing to 15 different files, other programs could still open a total of 22 files (40-3-15 = 22), though no one program could open more than 15 file handles. If you're running DOS 3.3 or later, you can increase the per-process limit of 20 file handles by a call to INT 21 function 67, Set Handle Count. Your program is still limited by the system-wide limit on open files, so you may also need to increase the FILES= value in your CONFIG.SYS file (and reboot). The run-time library that you're using may have a fixed-size table of file handles, so you may also need to get source code for the module that contains the table, increase the table size, and recompile it. In Microsoft C the run-time library limits you to 20 file handles. To change this, you must be aware of two limits: - file handles used with _open( ), _read( ), etc.: Edit _NFILE_ in CRT0DAT.ASM. - stream files used with fopen( ), fread( ), etc.: Edit _NFILE_ in _FILE.C for DOS or FILE.ASM for Windows/QuickWin. This must not exceed the value of _NFILE_ in CRT0DAT.ASM. (QuickWin uses the constant _WFILE_ in CRT0DAT.ASM and WFILE.ASM for the maximum number of child text windows.) After changing the limits, recompile using CSTARTUP.BAT. Microsoft recommends that you first read README.TXT in the same directory. Q409. How can I read, create, change, or delete the volume label? In DOS 5.0 (and, I believe, in 4.0 as well), there are actually two volume labels: one, the traditional one, is an entry in the root directory of the disk; and the other is in the boot record along with the serial number (see next Q). The DIR and VOL commands report the traditional label; the LABEL command reports the traditional one but changes both of them. In DOS 4.0 and later, use INT 21 function 69 to access the boot record's serial number and volume label together; see the next Q. Assume that by "volume label" you mean the traditional one, the one that DIR and VOL display. Though it's a directory entry in the root directory, you can't change it using the newer DOS file-access functions (3C, 41, 43); instead, use the old FCB-oriented directory functions. Specifically, you need to allocate a 64-byte buffer and a 41- byte extended FCB (file control block). Call INT 21 AH=1A to find out whether there is a volume label. If there is, AL returns 0 and you can change the label using DOS function 17 or delete it using DOS function 13. If there's no volume label, function 1A will return FF and you can create a label via function 16. Important points to notice are that ? wildcards are allowed but * are not; the volume label must be space filled not null terminated. The following MSC 7.0 code worked for me in DOS 5.0; the functions it uses have been around since DOS 2.0. The function parameter is 0 for the current disk, 1 for a:, 2 for b:, etc. It doesn't matter what your current directory is; these functions always search the root directory for volume labels. (I didn't try to change the volume label of any networked drives.) // Requires DOS.H, STDIO.H, STRING.H void vollabel(unsigned char drivenum) { static unsigned char extfcb[41], dta[64], status, *newlabel; int chars_got = 0; #define DOS(buff,func) __asm { __asm mov dx,offset buff \ __asm mov ax,seg buff __asm push ds __asm mov ds,ax \ __asm mov ah,func __asm int 21h __asm pop ds \ __asm mov status,al } #define getlabel(buff,prompt) newlabel = buff; \ memset(newlabel,' ',11); printf(prompt); \ scanf("%11[^\n]%n", newlabel, &chars_got); \ if (chars_got < 11) newlabel[chars_got] = ' '; // Set up the 64-byte transfer area used by function 1A. DOS(dta, 1Ah) // Set up an extended FCB and search for the volume label. memset(extfcb, 0, sizeof extfcb); extfcb[0] = 0xFF; // denotes extended FCB extfcb[6] = 8; // volume-label attribute bit extfcb[7] = drivenum; // 1=A, 2=B, etc.; 0=current drive memset(&extfcb[8], '?', 11); // wildcard *.* DOS(extfcb,11h) if (status == 0) { // DTA contains volume label's FCB printf("volume label is %11.11s\n", &dta[8]); getlabel(&dta[0x18], "new label (\"delete\" to delete): "); if (chars_got == 0) printf("label not changed\n"); else if (strncmp(newlabel,"delete ",11) == 0) { DOS(dta,13h) printf(status ? "label failed\n" : "label deleted\n"); } else { // user wants to change label DOS(dta,17h) printf(status ? "label failed\n" : "label changed\n"); } } else { // no volume label was found printf("disk has no volume label.\n"); getlabel(&extfcb[8], "new label ( for none): "); if (chars_got > 0) { DOS(extfcb,16h) printf(status ? "label failed\n" : "label created\n"); } } } // end function vollabel Q410. How can I get the disk serial number? Use INT 21. AX=6900 gets the serial number; AX=6901 sets it. See Ralf Brown's interrupt list, or page 496 of the July 1992 {PC Magazine}, for details. This function also gets and sets the volume label, but it's the volume label in the boot record, not the volume label that a DIR command displays. See the preceding Q. Q411. What's the format of .OBJ, .EXE., .COM files? Please see section 2, "Compile and link". Q412. How can I flush the software disk cache? Please see "How can a program reboot my PC?" in section 7, "Other software questions and problems". section 5. Serial ports (COM ports) =================================== Q501. How do I set my machine up to use COM3 and COM4? Unless your machine is fairly old, it's probably already set up. After installing the board that contains the extra COM port(s), check the I/O addresses in word 0040:0004 or 0040:0006. (In DEBUG, type "D 40:4 L4" and remember that every word is displayed low byte first, so if you see "03 56" the word is 5603.) If those addresses are nonzero, your PC is ready to use the ports and you don't need the rest of this answer. If the I/O address words in the 0040 segment are zero after you've installed the I/O board, you need some code to store these values into the BIOS data segment: 0040:0004 word I/O address of COM3 0040:0006 word I/O address of COM4 0040:0011 byte (bits 3-1): number of serial ports installed The documentation with your I/O board should tell you the port addresses. When you know the proper port addresses, you can add code to your program to store them and the number of serial ports into the BIOS data area before you open communications. Or you can use DEBUG to create a little program to include in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, using this script: n SET_ADDR.COM <--- or a different name ending in .COM a 100 mov AX,0040 mov DS,AX mov wo [0004],aaaa <--- replace aaaa with COM3 address or 0 mov wo [0006],ffff <--- replace ffff with COM4 address or 0 and by [0011],f1 or by [0011],8 <--- use number of serial ports times 2 mov AH,0 int 21 <--- this line must be blank rCX 1f rBX 0 w q Q502. How do I find the I/O address of a COM port? Look in the four words beginning at 0040:0000 for COM1 through COM4. (The DEBUG command "D 40:0 L8" will do this. Remember that words are stored and displayed low byte first, so a word value of 03F8 will be displayed as F8 03.) If the value is zero, that COM port is not installed (or you've got an old BIOS; see the preceding Q). If the value is nonzero, it is the I/O address of the transmit/receive register for the COM port. Each COM port occupies eight consecutive I/O addresses (though only seven are used by many chips). Here's some C code to find the I/O address: unsigned ptSel(unsigned comport) { unsigned io_addr; if (comport >= 1 && comport <= 4) { unsigned far *com_addr = (unsigned far *)0x00400000UL; io_addr = com_addr[comport-1]; } else io_addr = 0; return io_addr; } Q503. But aren't the COM ports always at I/O addresses 3F8, 2F8, 3E8, and 2E8? The first two are usually right (though not always); the last two are different on many machines. Q504. How do I configure a COM port and use it to transmit data? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) Do you want actual code, or do you want books that explain what's going on? 1) Source code First, check your compiler's run-time library. Many compilers offer functions similar to Microsoft C's _bios_serialcom() or Borland's bioscom(), which may meet your needs. Second, check for downloadable resources at Simtel and garbo. At Simtel, pd1:pcl4c34.zip (March 1993) is described as "Asynchronous communications library for C"; garbo has a whole /pc/comm directory. Also, an extended example is in Borland's TechFax TI445, downloadable as part of pd1:bchelp10.zip at Simtel /pc/turbopas/bchelp10.zip at garbo. Though written by Borland, much of it is applicable to other forms of C, and it should give you ideas for other programming languages. 2) Reference books After hearing several recommendations, I looked at Joe Campbell's {C Programmer's Guide to Serial Communications}, ISBN 0-672-22584-0, and agree that it is excellent. He gives complete details on how serial ports work, along with complete programs for doing polled or interrupt-driver I/O. The book is quite thick, and none of it looks like filler. If Campbell's book is overkill for you, you'll find a good short description of serial I/O in {DOS 5: A Developer's Guide}, ISBN 1-55851-177-6, by Al Williams. section 6. Other hardware questions and problems ================================================ Q601. Which 80x86 CPU is running my program? (rev: 13 June 1993) According to an article posted by Michael Davidson, Intel's approved code for distinguishing among 8086, 80286, 80386, and 80486 and for detecting the presence of an 80287 or 80387 is published in Intel's 486SX processor manual (order number 240950-001). David Kirschbaum's improved version of this is downloadable as pd1:cpuid593.zip from Simtel /pc/sysinfo/cpuid593.zip from garbo. According to an article posted by its author, WCPU knows the differences between DX and SX varieties of 386 and 486 chips, and can also detect a math coprocessor and a Pentium. It's downloadable as pd1:wcpu050.zip at Simtel. Q602. How can a C program send control codes to my printer? If you just fprintf(stdprn, ...), C will translate some of your control codes. The way around this is to reopen the printer in binary mode: prn = fopen("PRN", "wb"); You must use a different file handle because stdprn isn't an lvalue. By the way, PRN or LPT1 must not be followed by a colon in DOS 5.0. There's one special case, Ctrl-Z (ASCII 26), the DOS end-of-file character. If you try to send an ASCII 26 to your printer, DOS simply ignores it. To get around this, you need to reset the printer from "cooked" to "raw" mode. Microsoft C users must use int 21 function 44, "get/set device information". Turbo C and Borland C++ users can use ioctl to accomplish the same thing: ioctl(fileno(prn), 1, ioctl(fileno(prn),0) & 0xFF | 0x20, 0); An alternative approach is simply to write the printer output into a disk file, then copy the file to the printer with the /B switch. A third approach is to bypass DOS functions entirely and use the BIOS printer functions at INT 17. If you also fprintf(stdprn,...) in the same program, you'll need to use fflush( ) to synchronize fprintf( )'s buffered output with the BIOS's unbuffered. By the way, if you've opened the printer in binary mode from a C program, remember that outgoing \n won't be translated to carriage return/line feed. Depending on your printer, you may need to send explicit \n\r sequences. Q603. How can I redirect printer output to a file? Please see section 4, "Disks and files", for the answer. Q604. Which video adapter is installed? The technique below should work if your BIOS is not too old. It uses three functions from INT 10, the BIOS video interrupt. (If you're using a Borland language, you may not have to do this the hard way. Look for a function called DetectGraph or something similar.) Set AH=12h, AL=0, BL=32h; INT 10h. If AL is 12h, you have a VGA. If not, set AH=12h, BL=10h; INT 10h. If BL is 0,1,2,3, you have an EGA with 64,128,192,256K memory. If not, set AH=0Fh; INT 10h. If AL is 7, you have an MDA (original monochrome adapter) or Hercules; if not, you have a CGA. I've tested this for my VGA and got the right answer; but I can't test it for the other equipment types. Please let me know by email at brown@ncoast.org if your results vary. Q605. How do I switch to 43- or 50-line mode? pd1:vidmode.zip, downloadable from Simtel, contains .COM utilities and .ASM source code. Q606. How can I find the Microsoft mouse position and button status? Use INT 33 function 3, described in Ralf Brown's interrupt list. The Windows manual says that the Logitech mouse is compatible with the Microsoft one, so I assume the interrupt will work the same. Also, many files are downloadable from pd1: at Simtel. Q607. How can I access a specific address in the PC's memory? First check the library that came with your compiler. Many vendors have some variant of peek and poke functions; in Turbo Pascal use the pseudo-arrays Mem, MemW, and MemL. As an alternative, you can construct a far pointer: use Ptr in Turbo Pascal, MK_FP in the Turbo C family, and FP_OFF and FP_SEG in Microsoft C. Caution: Turbo C and Turbo C++ also have FP_OFF and FP_SEG macros, but they can't be used to construct a pointer. In Borland C++ those macros work the same as in Microsoft C, but MK_FP is easier to use. By the way, it's not useful to talk about "portable" ways to do this. Any operation that is tied to a specific memory address is not likely to work on another kind of machine. Q608. How can I read or write my PC's CMOS memory? (rev: 13 Jun 1993) There are a great many public-domain utilities that do this. These are downloadable from Simtel: pd1: cmos14.zip 5965 920817 Saves/restores CMOS to/from file cmoser11.zip 28323 910721 386/286 enhanced CMOS setup program cmosram.zip 76096 920214 Save AT/386/486 CMOS data to file and restore rom2.zip 15692 900131 Save AT and 386 CMOS data to file and restore setup21.zip 18172 880613 Setup program which modifies CMOS RAM viewcmos.zip 11068 900225 Display contents of AT CMOS RAM, w/C source Downloadable from garbo, /pc/ts/tsutle22.zip contains a CMOS program to check and display CMOS memory, but not to write to it. I have heard good reports of CMOS299.ZIP, available in the pc.dir directory of cantva.canterbury.ac.nz [132.181.30.3]. Of the above, my only experience is with CMOSRAM, which seems to work fine. It contains an excellent (and witty) .DOC file that explains the hardware involved and gives specific recommendations for preventing disaster or recovering from it. It's $5 shareware. Robert Jourdain's {Programmer's Problem Solver for the IBM PC, XT, and AT} has code for accessing the CMOS RAM, according to an article posted in this newsgroup. Q609. How can I access memory beyond 640K? (rev: 2 May 1993) This is a legitimate FAQ, in that it is frequently asked. But there is no single agreed-upon answer. Please see the separate article called "How to access memory above 640K" in comp.os.msdos.programmer and in faqp*.zip at Simtel and garbo. Q610. Where can I find a list of 80x86 opcodes? (new: 2 May 1993) It's part of a rather long file, the 8 Dec 1992 edition of the Info-IBMPC Digest (V92 #185), downloadable as pd2:9212.1-txt at Simtel. (Note: pd2, not pd1.) Opcodes for the 8086 through 80386 are listed. section 7. Other software questions and problems ================================================ Q701. How can a program reboot my PC? You can generate a "cold" boot or a "warm" boot. A cold boot is the same as turning the power off and on; a warm boot is the same as Ctrl-Alt-Del and skips the power-on self test. For a warm boot, store the hex value 1234 in the word at 0040:0072. For a cold boot, store 0 in that word. Then, if you want to live dangerously, jump to address FFFF:0000. Here's C code to do it: /* WARNING: data loss possible */ void bootme(int want_warm) /* arg 0 = cold boot, 1 = warm */ { void (far* boot)(void) = (void (far*)(void))0xFFFF0000UL; unsigned far* type = (unsigned far*)0x00400072UL; *type = (want_warm ? 0x1234 : 0); (*boot)( ); } What's wrong with that method? It will boot right away, without closing files, flushing disk caches, etc. If you boot without flushing a write-behind disk cache (if one is running), you could lose data or even trash your hard drive. There are two methods of signaling the cache to flush its buffers: (1) simulate a keyboard Ctrl-Alt-Del in the keystroke translation function of the BIOS (INT 15 function 4F), and (2) issue a disk reset (DOS function 0D). Most disk-cache programs hook one or both of those interrupts, so if you use both methods you'll probably be safe. When user code simulates a Ctrl-Alt-Del, one or more of the programs that have hooked INT 15 function 4F can ask that the key be ignored by clearing the carry flag. For example, HyperDisk does this when it has started but not finished a cache flush. So if the carry flag comes back cleared, the boot code has to wait a couple of clock ticks and then try again. (None of this matters on older machines whose BIOS can't support 101- or 102-key keyboards; see "What is the SysRq key for?" in section 3, "Keyboard".) Here's C code that tries to signal the disk cache (if any) to flush: #include void bootme(int want_warm) /* arg 0 = cold boot, 1 = warm */ { union REGS reg; void (far* boot)(void) = (void (far*)(void))0xFFFF0000UL; unsigned far* boottype = (unsigned far*)0x00400072UL; char far* shiftstate = (char far*)0x00400017UL; unsigned ticks; int time_to_waste; /* Simulate reception of Ctrl-Alt-Del: */ for (;;) { *shiftstate |= 0x0C; /* turn on Ctrl & Alt */ reg.x.ax = 0x4F53; /* 0x53 = Del's scan code */ reg.x.cflag = 1; /* sentinel for ignoring key */ int86(0x15, ®, ®); /* If carry flag is still set, we've finished. */ if (reg.x.cflag) break; /* Else waste some time before trying again: */ reg.h.ah = 0; int86(0x1A, ®, ®);/* system time into CX:DX */ ticks = reg.x.dx; for (time_to_waste = 3; time_to_waste > 0; ) { reg.h.ah = 0; int86(0x1A, ®, ®); if (ticks != reg.x.dx) ticks = reg.x.dx , --time_to_waste; } } /* Issue a DOS disk reset request: */ reg.h.ah = 0x0D; int86(0x21, ®, ®); /* Set boot type and boot: */ *boottype = (want_warm ? 0x1234 : 0); (*boot)( ); } Q702. How can I time events with finer resolution than the system clock's 55 ms (about 18 ticks a second)? (rev: 13 June 1993) The following files, among others, are downloadable from Simtel: pd1: atim.zip 4783 881126 Precision program timing for AT pd1: millisec.zip 37734 911205 MSC/asm src for millisecond res timing mschrt3.zip 53708 910605 High-res timer toolbox for MSC 5.1 msec_12.zip 8484 920320 High-def millisec timer v1.2 (C,ASM) ztimer11.zip 77625 920428 Microsecond timer for C, C++, ASM pd1: tchrt3.zip 53436 910606 High-res timer toolbox for Turbo C 2.0 tctimer.arc 20087 891030 High-res timing of events for Turbo C (same as /pc/c/tctimer.zoo at garbo?) For Turbo Pascal users, source and object code are downloadable in pd1:bonus507.zip at Simtel /pc/turbopas/bonus507.zip at garbo. Q703. How can I find the error level of the previous program? (rev: 13 June 1993) First, which previous program are you talking about? If your current program ran another one, when the child program ends its error level is available to the program that spawned it. Most high-level languages provide a way to do this; for instance, in Turbo Pascal it's Lo(DosExitCode) and the high byte gives the way in which the child terminated. In Microsoft C, the exit code of a synchronous child process is the return value of the spawn-type function that creates the process. If your language doesn't have a function to return the error code of a child process, you can use INT 21 function 4D (get return code). By the way, this will tell you the child's exit code and the manner of its ending (normal, Ctrl-C, critical error, or TSR). It's much trickier if the current program wants to get the error level of the program that ran and finished before this one started. G.A.Theall has published source and compiled code to do this; the code is downloadable as pd1:errlvl13.zip at Simtel. (The code uses undocumented features in DOS 3.3 through 5.0. Theall says in the .DOC file that the values returned under 4DOS or other replacements won't be right.) Q704. How can a program set DOS environment variables? (rev: 13 June 1993) Program functions that read or write "the environment" typically access only the program's copy of it. What this Q really wants to do is to modify the active environment, the one that is affected by SET commands in batch files or at the DOS prompt. You need to do some programming to find the active environment, and that depends on the version of DOS. A fairly well-written article in {PC Magazine} volume 8 number 20 (1989 Nov 28), pages 309-314, explains how to find the active environment, and includes Pascal source code. The article hints at how to change the environment, and suggests creating paths longer than 128 characters as one application. Now as for downloadable source code, there are many possibilities. Of the ones I looked at (not all of them), I liked pd1:rbsetnv1.zip at Simtel /pc/envutil/rbsetnv1.zip at garbo the best. It includes some utilities to manipulate the environment, with source code in C. A newer program is pd1:strings2.zip at Simtel part of /pc/pcmag/vol11n22.zip at garbo, which is the code from the {PC Magazine} article of volume 11 number 22 (22 Dec 1992). You can also use a call to INT 2E, Pass Command to Interpreter for Execution; see Ralf Brown's interrupt list for details and cautions. Q705. How can I change the switch character to - from /? Under DOS 5.0, you can't -- not completely, anyway. INT 21 function 3700, get switch character, always returns a '/' (hex 2F) -- and the DOS commands don't even call that function, but hard code '/' as the switch character. Some history: DOS used to let you change the switch character by using SWITCHAR= in CONFIG.SYS or by calling DOS function 3701. DOS commands and other programs called DOS function 3700 to find out the switch character. If you changed the switch character to '-' (the usual choice), you could then type "dir c:/c700 -p" rather than "dir c:\c700 /p". Under DOS 4.0, the DOS commands ignored the switch character but functions 3700 and 3701 still worked and could be used by other programs. Under DOS 5.0, even those functions no longer work, though all DOS functions still accept '/' or '\' in file specs. You can reactivate the functions to get and set switchar by using programs like SLASH.ZIP or the sample TSR called SWITCHAR in amisl091.zip (see "How can I write a TSR?", below.) DOS commands will still use the slash, but non-DOS programs that call DOS func- tion 3700 will use your desired switch character. (DOS replacements like 4DOS may honor the switch character for internal commands.) Some readers may wonder why this is even an issue. Making '-' the switch character frees up the front slash to separate names in the path part of a file spec. This is easier for the ten-fingered to type, and it's one less difference to remember for commuters between DOS and Unix. The switch character is the only issue, since all the INT 21 functions accept '/' or '\' to separate directory names. Q706. Why does my interrupt function behave strangely? Interrupt service routines can be tricky, because you have to do some things differently from "normal" programs. If you make a mistake, debugging is a pain because the symptoms may not point at what's wrong. Your machine may lock up or behave erratically, or just about anything else can happen. Here are some things to look for. (See the next Q for general help before you have a problem.) First, did you fail to set up the registers at the start of your routine? When your routine begins executing, you can count on having CS point to your code segment and SS:SP point to some valid stack (of unknown length), and that's it. In particular, an interrupt service routine must set DS to DGROUP before accessing any data in its data segments. (If you're writing in a high-level language, the compiler may generate this code for you automatically; check your compiler manual. For instance, in Borland and Microsoft C, give your function the "interrupt" attribute.) Did you remember to turn off stack checking when compiling your interrupt server and any functions it calls? The stack during the interrupt is not where the stack-checking code expects it to be. (Caution: Some third-party libraries have stack checking compiled in, so you can't call them from your interrupt service routine.) Next, are you calling any DOS functions (INT 21, 25, or 26) in your routine? DOS is not re-entrant. This means that if your interrupt happens to be triggered while the CPU is executing a DOS function, calling another DOS function will wreak havoc. (Some DOS functions are fully re-entrant, as noted in Ralf Brown's interrupt list. Also, your program can test, in a way too complicated to present here, when it's safe to call non-re-entrant DOS functions. See INT 28 and functions 34, 5D06, 5D0B of INT 21; and consult {Undocumented DOS} by Andrew Schulman. Your program must read both the "InDOS flag" and the "critical error flag".) Is a function in your language library causing trouble? Does it depend on some initializations done at program startup that is no longer available when the interrupt executes? Does it call DOS (see preceding paragraph)? For example, in both Borland and Microsoft C the memory-allocation functions (malloc, etc..) and standard I/O functions (scanf, printf) call DOS functions and also depend on setups that they can't get at from inside an interrupt. Many other library functions have the same problem, so you can't use them inside an interrupt function without special precautions. Is your routine simply taking too long? This can be a problem if you're hooking on to the timer interrupt, INT 1C or INT 8. Since that interrupt expects to be called 18.2 times a second, your routine -- plus any others hooked to the same interrupts -- must execute in less than 55 ms. If they use even a substantial fraction of that time, you'll see significant slowdowns of your foreground program. A good discussion is downloadable as pub/msdos/simtel20/info/INTSHARE at ni.funet.fi pd1:intshare at Simtel. Did you forget to restore all registers at the end of your routine? Did you chain improperly to the original interrupt? You need to restore the stack to the way it was upon entry to your routine, then do a far jump (not call) to the original interrupt service routine. (The process is a little different in high-level languages.) Q707. How can I write a TSR (terminate-stay-resident utility)? (rev: 13 June 1993) There are books, and there's code to download. First, the books: - Ray Duncan's {Advanced MS-DOS}, ISBN 1-55615-157-8, gives a brief checklist intended for experienced programmers. The ISBN is for the second edition, through DOS 4; but check to see whether the DOS 5 version is available yet. - {DOS 5: A Developer's Guide} by Al Williams, ISBN 1-55851-177-6, goes into a little more detail, 90 pages worth! - Pascal programmers might look at {The Ultimate DOS Programmer's Manual} by John Mueller and Wallace Wang, ISBN 0-8306-3534-3, for an extended example in mixed Pascal and assembler. - For a pure assembler treatment, check Steven Holzner's {Advanced Assembly Language}, ISBN 0-13-663014-6. He has a book with the same title out from Brady Press, but it's about half as long as this one. - For C programmers, there's a chapter in Herbert Schildt's {The Art of C: Elegant Programming Solutions}. I haven't seen the book, but a posted article recommended it. Next, the code. Some of it is companion code to published articles, which are also listed below: - The Alternate Multiplex Interrupt Specification, downloadable as pd1:altmpx35.zip at Simtel /pc/programming/altmpx35.zip at garbo /afs/cs/user/ralf/pub/altmpx35.zip at cs.cmu.edu - Ralf Brown's assembly-language implementation of the spec, with utilities in C, downloadable as pd1:amisl091.zip at Simtel /afs/cs/user/ralf/pub/amisl091.zip at cs.cmu.edu - Douglas Boling's MASM template for a TSR is downloadable as pd1:template.zip at Simtel. - A posted article mentions Boling's "Strategies and Techniques for Writing State-of-the-Art TSRs that Exploit MS-DOS 5", Microsoft Systems Journal, Jan-Feb 1992, Volume 7, Number 1, pages 41-59, with examples downloadable in pd1:msjv7-1.zip at Simtel - code for Al Stevens's "Writing Terminate-and-Stay-Resident Programs", Computer Language, February 1988, pages 37-48 and March 1988, pages 67-76 is downloadable as pd1:tsrc.zip at Simtel - software examples to accompany Kaare Christian's "Using Microsoft C Version 5.1 to Write Terminate-and-Stay-Resident Programs", Microsoft Systems Journal, September 1988, Volume 3, Number 5, pages 47-57 are downloadable as pd1:msjv3-5.arc at Simtel Finally, there are commercial products, of which TesSeRact (for C-language TSRs) is one of the best known. Q708. How can I write a device driver? Many books answer this in detail. Among them are {Advanced MS-DOS} and {DOS 5: A Developer's Guide}, cited in the preceding Q. Michael Tischer's {PC System Programming}, ISBN 1-55755-036-0, has an extensive treatment, as does Dettman and Kyle's {DOS Programmer's Reference: 2d Edition}, ISBN 0-88022-458-4. For a really in-depth treatment, look for a specialized book like Robert Lai's {Writing MS-DOS Device Drivers}, ISBN 0-201-13185-4. Q709. What can I use to manage versions of software? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) A port of the Unix RCS utility is downloadable from Simtel as pd1:rcs55ax.zip (EXE and docs) and rcs55as.zip (source). I haven't used it myself, but I understand this is no longer limited to one-character extensions on filenames (so .CPP and .BAS are fine). Q710. What's this "null pointer assignment" after my C program executes? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) Somewhere in your program, you assigned a value _through_ a pointer without first assigning a value _to_ the pointer. (This might have been something like a strcpy or memcpy with a pointer as its first argument, not necessarily an actual assignment statement.) Your program may look like it ran correctly, but if you get this message you can be certain that there's a bug somewhere. Microsoft and Borland C, as part of their exit code (after a return from your main function), check whether the location 0000 in your data segment contains a different value from what you started with; if so, they infer that you must have used an uninitialized pointer. To track down the problem, you can put exit( ) statements at various spots in the program and narrow down where the uninitialized pointer is being used by seeing which added exit( ) makes the null-pointer message disappear. Or, in the debugger, set a watch at location 0000 in your data segment, assuming you're in small or medium model. (If data pointers are 32 bits, as in the compact and large models, a null pointer will overwrite the interrupt vectors at 0000:0000 and probably lock up your machine.) Under MSC/C++ 7.0, you can declare the undocumented library function extern _cdecl _nullcheck(void); and then sprinkle calls to _nullcheck( ) through your program at regular intervals. Borland's TechFax document #TI726 discusses the null pointer assignment from a Borland point of view. It's one of many documents downloadable as part of pd1:bchelp10.zip at Simtel /pc/turbopas/bchelp10.zip at garbo. Q711. How can my program tell if it's running under Windows? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) Set AX=4680 and execute INT 2F. If AX contains 0, you're in Windows real mode or standard mode (or under the DOS 5.0 shell). Otherwise, set AX=1600 and INT 2F. If AL does not contain 0 or 80, you're in Windows 386 enhanced mode. (source: PC Magazine volume 11 nr 20, pp 492-493) When Windows 3.0 or 3.1 is running, the DOS environment will contain a definition of the string windir, in lower case. For more information, see {PC Magazine} 92/11/24 pages 492-3 and 92/5/26 pages 345-6. A program, WINMODE, is available as part of pd1:vol11n10.zip at Simtel /pc/pcmag/vol11n10.zip at garbo. Q712. How do I copyright software that I write? (new: 5 Apr 1993) The following is adapted (and greatly condensed) from chapter 4 of the Chicago Manual of Style (13th edition, ISBN 0-226-10390-0). Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. Also, there are very likely to be differences in copyright law among nations. No matter where you live, if significant money may be involved, get legal advice. That said, in the U.S. (at least), when you write something, you own the copyright. (The most significant exception to programmers is "works made for hire", i.e., something you write because your employer or client pays you to. A contract, agreed in advance, can vest the copyright in the programmer even if an employee.) You don't have to register the work with the Copyright Office unless (until) the copyright is infringed and you intend to bring suit; however, it is easier to recover damages in court if you did register the work within three months of publication. From paragraph 4.16 of the Chicago Manual: "... the [copyright] notice consists of three parts: (1) the symbol [C-in-a-circle] (preferred because it also suits the requirements of the Universal Copyright Convention), the word 'Copyright', or the abbreviation 'Copr.', (2) a date--the year of first publication, and (3) the name of the copyright owner. Most publishers also add the phrase 'All rights reserved' because it affords some protection in Central and South American countries ...." Surprise: "(C)" is legally not the same as the C-in-a-circle, so those of us who are ASCII-bound must use the word or the abbreviation. (continued in part 4) -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems brown@Ncoast.ORG Can't find FAQ lists? ftp to 'rtfm.mit.edu' and look in /pub/usenet (or email me >>> with valid reply-to address <<< for instructions). Archive-name: msdos-programmer-faq/part4 Last-modified: 13 June 1993 (continued from part 3) (no warranty on the code or information) If the posting date is more than six weeks in the past, see instructions in part 4 of this list for how to get an updated copy. Copyright (C) 1993 Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems. All rights reserved. section A. Downloads ==================== QA01. What are Simtel, garbo, and wustl? (rev: 13 Jun 1993) These are three of the most popular archive sites, with a few bazillion files available for downloading by ftp. (For email access, see next Q.) Everything is free for downloading, though many of the files are shareware and you're expected to send a payment directly to the authors if you use them regularly. In comp.archives.msdos.d, Samuel Ko posts a two-part "Useful MSDOS Programs at SIMTEL20 and Garbo"; it's downloadable as pd1:useful27.zip at Simtel /pc/filelist/useful27.zip at garbo /pub/usenet/news.answers/msdos-archives/part* at rtfm.mit.edu. For rtfm.mit.edu instructions, see "Where are FAQ lists archived?" in section C, "More information". A few words about file names and versions: Many files at the archive sites are updated from time to time. I have verified the filenames in this FAQ list as follows: garbo: from /pc/INDEX as of 10 Jun 1993 Simtel: from pd1:simibm.zip as of 1 Jun 1993 rtfm.mit.edu: via ftp access on 10 Apr 1993 If you can't find a file given in these articles as mumble12.zip, perhaps there's a newer version; try mumble13.zip or mumble14.zip, or mumble*.zip if your ftp program supports wildcards (most do so). Please let me know of any out-of-date file names in these FAQs and I'll gladly update them. I have tried to list both garbo and Simtel directory and file names for every file mentioned for downloading. If you see a listing for only one of them, it means that I couldn't find the file at the other site, or that the other site's catalog shows an old version. Also remember that caps and lower case filenames are not inter- changeable at most archive sites, though they are at Simtel. 1) Simtel = wsmr-simtel20.army.mil [192.88.110.20] is located in New Mexico, USA. For instructions, see these monthly articles in comp.archives.msdos.announce: SIMTEL20 archives info for Internet FTP users How to find files in the SIMTEL20 msdos collection How to order SIMTEL20 files via e-mail How to upload files to SIMTEL20 These are downloadable from Simtel as pd1:simtel20.inf and pd1:aaaread.me, mailserv.inf, and upload.inf. If you have no ftp access, you can get these files (and anything else) by email; see the next Q. If Simtel is busy, you might try the mirror site oak.oakland.edu, which is operated by the University of Rochester (Michigan). Both are maintained by Keith Petersen (w8sdz@TACOM-EMH1.Army.Mil or w8sdz@Vela.ACS.Oakland.Edu), so oak will probably be updated faster than any other mirror. At Oak, the directories /pub/msdos/* correspond to Simtel's pd1:, so the starter files mentioned above are downloadable as /pub/msdos/starter/simtel20.inf and /pub/msdos/filedocs/aaaread.me, mailserv.inf, and upload.inf. 2) garbo = garbo.uwasa.fi [128.214.87.1] is located at the University of Vaasa in Finland and maintained by Timo Salmi (ts@uwasa.fi). garbo and Simtel contain many of the same files, but there are many differences too. Among them: the directory structures differ greatly, and case is significant in directory and file names at garbo. 3) wustl = wuarchive.wustl.edu [128.252.135.4] mirrors both garbo (in /mirrors4/garbo.uwasa.fi) and Simtel (in /mirrors/msdos). As with any mirror site, it may lag by a day or two, so you may not want to try it on the same day you see an upload notice posted. 4) others A comprehensive list of MS-DOS archive sites is downloadable as /pc/pd2/moder25.zip at garbo. For archie.au via Telnet (different from the Archie file-finding mail servers): Oceanian users should try archie.au first. Paul Brooks has written to say that it "mirrors garbo and simtel-20 (in /micros/pc/simtel-20, /micros/pc/garbo) as well as many other archives. Telnetting to 'archie.au' and logging on as 'archie' (no password) will access the Oceanic ARCHIE server." Email Craig Warren (ccw@archie.au) for instructions if needed. QA02. I have no ftp access. How can I get files from the archives? (new: 2 Feb 1993) First, be _sure_ that you have no ftp access before trying email methods. (Ask your sysadmin, or a knowledgeable user at your site.) ftp is better for you because it's faster, and it uses less net resources too. When using an email server, make sure the Reply-to path in your message is valid. If it's not, you'll get no reply from the server. Do wait a few days before assuming you're not going to get a response; some servers have long pending queues. After a suitable wait, get your sysadmin's help to correct your reply-to, and send your message again. Occasionally a machine goes down for an extended period, which may prevent a timely reply to your message. If you're sure your message bears a good reply path and you haven't got a reply in a week or so, you might send your message again, once. Don't post it as an article in a newsgroup. For files from Simtel, see "How to order SIMTEL20 files via e-mail", posted monthly in comp.archives.msdos.announce; or send email containing only the word "help" to listserv@vm1.nodak.edu. The DEC Western Research Labs server will get files from any ftp site by ftp and then email them to you. Send email containing "help" to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. QA03. Can I get archives on CD-ROM? (rev: 24 May 1993) Copies of the SIMTEL20 MS-DOS, Macintosh and Unix-C collections (also of wuarchive, cica, and others) are available from Walnut Creek CDROM, 1547 Palos Verdes, Suite 260, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-2228, telephone (800) 786-9907 or +1 510 674-0783, or FAX +1 510 674-0821, or email rab@cdrom.com. For a catalog of disks available, send email to info@cdrom.com, or ftp the catalog as /cdrom/catalog from cdrom.com. QA04. Where do I find program ? (rev: 2 Feb 1993) There are several newsgroups to help; comp.binaries.ibm.pc.wanted is generally the best place to ask your question. Please review the guidelines in "What other newsgroups should I know about?" in section 1, "General questions". Download and check the indexes from Simtel and garbo (see next Q). Unless what you're looking for is commercial software, there's a good chance it will be at one or both of those sites. The Archie servers maintain directories of many (not all) ftp sites worldwide. You can Telnet to a server or client to search for files, or perform a search by email. See the Anonymous FTP List, posted periodically in news.answers and other groups, for a list of Archie servers. QA05. How can I check Simtel or garbo before I post a request for a program? (rev: 2 Feb 1993) Simtel and garbo have indexes of their contents, which you can download and then search off line. garbo's index file, /pc/INDEX, is an annotated list, frequently updated, of the MS-DOS files there; to save download time, get the packed form /pc/INDEX.ZIP. The news file /pc/pd2/news-pd2 contains selected news on all MS-DOS directories at garbo. Simtel's index files, in pd1:, are updated several times a month. SIMLIST.ZIP contains a list in text format. But you may prefer the file SIMIBM.ZIP, which is comma-delimited for easy use with any of these search facilities: - Two downloadable search programs are SIMTEL35.ARC and SIMDIR22.ZIP. Of the two, I find I use SIMDIR much more often. - dBASE III or IV users can load the index from SIMLIST.ZIP using instructions in SIMIBM.INF and SIMIBM.DB3. - PC-FILE users should get SIMIBM.HDR, which tells how to use SIMIBM.IBM. QA06. How do I download and decode a program I found? (rev: 16 Mar 1993) See the "starter kit" in comp.binaries.ibm.pc, usually posted on the first and 15th of every month. Most binaries are posted and sent through email in 'uuencode' format. The starter kit contains a uudecode program to turn this file back into binary. If you can't wait (if?, bwaa-haa-haa), you can get the starter kit via ftp or email from rtfm.mit.edu, in the directory /pub/usenet/comp.binaries.ibm.pc as files v21inf02:_s.k,_C_S_s_K_v1.9.1_(p_01_01) v21inf04:_b.m,_B_s_G_t_B_V1.3_(p_01_01) For general instructions on rtfm.mit.edu, see "Where are FAQ lists archived?" in section C, "More information". If you're using Kermit, remember to set file type binary before issuing the send command. By the way, the uuencoded file is bigger than the binary, so you'll save connect time if you can uudecode it and then download the binary file. QA07. Where is UUDECODE? You can find it at Simtel and garbo, but it's easier to take it from the "starter kit" mentioned in the preceding Q. If you're logged in at a Unix site, there's almost certainly a uudecode there: just type "uudecode" followed by a space and the file name. The binary file is 25% smaller than the uuencoded file, so you'll save connect time if you can uudecode it on the Unix host and then download the binary file. Remember: set file type binary. QA08. Why do I get errors when extracting from a ZIP file I downloaded? (rev: 5 Apr 1993) There are many possible causes, but two of them probably account for 95% of all problems. 1) File transmission: You must tell the archive site to transfer .ZIP files in binary mode. Depending on your software, you may also need to set your local software to receive files in binary mode. 2) Unzipping program: Make sure you aren't using an obsolete version. In <9303290853.kp28285@tacom-emh1.army.mil> on 29 Mar 1993, Keith Petersen, Simtel administrator, wrote: "SIMTEL20 has standardized on the Info-ZIP group's ZIP and UNZIP because they are freely distributable and they have no restrictions on exporting. The latest version of Info-ZIP's ZIP and UNZIP can always be found in directory PD1: and will always have the name 'Info-ZIP' in the description to make them easy to locate." PKUNZIP version 1.10 may not unzip newer stuff from archive sites because site administrators have now embraced version 2.04. Also see "What's the current version of UNZIP?" in section B, "Vendors and products". section B. Vendors and products =============================== QB01. How can I contact Borland? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) Borland has set up these email addresses. However, none of them is for technical support such as help with finding your own programming errors and explaining compiler messages. - bp7-info@borland.com will reply to any message with 17K of info on Borland Pascal with Objects 7.0 and Turbo Pascal 7.0. - customer-support@borland.com is for questions about prices and features of products, replacing bad or missing disks, info on upgrades, etc. They do not accept emailed credit-card numbers. - bugs@borland.com will take "a well-documented bug report" and send an automated response, but will not give you a workaround or a scheduled fix date or even confirm that it is or is not considered a bug. "The purpose of bugs@borland.com is to improve future products sooner, not as a substitute for tech support channels." Tech support is provided through Compuserve (GO BOR), by voice phone at +1 408 438 5300, by FAX at (800) 822-4269 in U.S. (use Touch-Tone voice phone), on a BBS at +1 408 439 9096, and by mail at Technical Support Department Borland International P.O. Box 660001 Scotts Valley CA 95067-0001, USA. You'll need to give your product's name, version, and serial number. Borland's TechFax documents are also available for download: pd1:bchelp10.zip from Simltel /pc/turbopas/bchelp10.zip from garbo. These documents are detailed answers to common questions about Turbo C and Borland C products, and aggregate about four times the size of this file. QB02. How can I contact Microsoft? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) Individual employees of Microsoft (not MicroSoft, please!) post here sometimes. Their addresses all take the form person@microsoft.com. However, Microsoft as a company does not provide product support through the Internet, as far as I'm aware. Technical support through your modem is available on Compuserve (GO MICROSOFT) or via Microsoft's BBS at +1 206 936-6735 in the U.S., or +1 416 507-3022 in Canada. If you want to place an order or get general pre-sales information, call the appropriate sales and service number: U.S. end-user sales (800) 426-9400 U.S. corporate/gov't/reseller/ educational sales (800) 227-4679 Canadian sales (800) 568-3503 International sales +1 206 936-8661 For tech support you must make an ordinary long-distance phone call. Microsoft has separate incoming phone numbers for many products. Since it's your nickel, first check your documentation to see if a phone number is listed. Here are phone numbers (as of 1 June 1992) for a few products of most interest to the readers of this group: C/C++ (206) 635-7007 MASM (206) 646-5109 DOS Upgrade Users (206) 646-5104 (for 90 days after first call) Windows Users (206) 637-6098 If you can't find the direct number any other way, call the "master" numbers below or the sales numbers a few paragraphs above. You'll get the "voice mail phone tree from h-ll" but you'll eventually get to the right department. They don't provide technical assistance, but a voice menu will help you find the current phone number for the department you need. U.S. end-user product support (206) 454-2030 U.S. languages support (206) 637-7096 You can also write to Microsoft Product Support, 16011 NE 36th Way, Box 97017, Redmond WA 98073-9717, USA. QB03. What's the current version of UNZIP? (rev: 13 June 1993) As of April 1993, the administrators of garbo and Simtel are accepting uploads in the ZIP 2.0 format. You can use the free Info-ZIP versions, or PKZIP 2.04g (not 2.04c or 2.04e). Simtel has standardized on the Info-ZIP versions for several reasons, as explained in an article posted 29 Mar 1993 in comp.archives.msdos.announce. The official site for the latest versions of Info-ZIP's Zip and unZip programs is quest.jpl.nasa.gov [128.129.75.43] in directory /pub. Also downloadable are these files, in pd1: at Simtel and /pc/arcers at garbo (no source code at garbo): unz50p1.exe UnZip 5.0p1 program and documentation unz50p1.zip UnZip 5.0p1 source code zip19p1x.zip Zip 1.9p1 .EXEs and docs (PKZIP 2.04 compatible) zip19p1.zip Zip 1.9p1 source code (PKZIP 2.04 compatible) An advantage of the Info-ZIP versions is that are not restricted to MS-DOS. Look at quest.jpl.nasa.gov for versions for all supported operating systems. At Simtel, look in pd8: and pd8: for unix and VAX/VMS versions; the source code in pd8: also compiles under MS-DOS and VAX/VMS. PKZIP and PKUNZIP are shareware products of PKWARE Inc. The current version is 2.04g, which is the third official version after 1.10. You can download them from PKWARE's bulletin board, +1 414 354 8670, or from garbo as /pc/arcers/pkz204g.exe. U.S. law forbids U.S. archive sites from making them available. By the way, if you want to develop your own utilities, you will find the ZIP 2.0 data structures described in the downloadable file pd1:appnote.zip at Simtel. QB04. What's in Borland Pascal/Turbo Pascal 7.0? You can send email to bp7-info@borland.com and get an automatic reply of the 17K information file from Borland, or the file is downloadable (6k, ZIPped) as /pc/turbopas/bp7-info.zip from garbo.uwasa.fi. QB05. What's in Microsoft Visual C++? (new: 24 May 1993) This is the replacement for Microsoft C/C++ 7.0. It comes in Standard and Professional versions, as well as an upgrade from MSC 7.0. The Professional upgrade is $139 in U.S. and includes all software but less than half the full set of manuals. According to Microsoft Sales, (800) 426-9400 in the U.S., the Professional edition can develop applications for Windows or good ol' DOS and includes the optimizing compiler; the Standard edition's compiler lacks the optimization and can't develop Windows applications. QB06. Where is Microsoft C 8.0? There won't be an 8.0. Visual C++ is the upgrade to C/C++ 7.0 (see previous Q). section C. More information =========================== QC01. Are there any good on-line references for PC hardware components? (rev: 18 Apr 1993) I have heard good reports of HELPPC21, which is downloadable as pd1:helppc21.zip at Simtel /pc/programming/helppc21.zip at garbo. There's an info file in the same directory, helppc21.inf. This hypertext system contains much information on ports and other hardware, as well as some overlap with Ralf Brown's interrupt list (see next Q). It is shareware ($25). QC02. Are there any good on-line references for PC interrupts? (rev: 6 June 1993) The definitive work is Ralf Brown's interrupt list, which is packed with information on documented and (officially) undocumented BIOS and DOS interrupts, DOS tables, and interrupts hooked by many software packages. The interrupt list comes from CS.CMU.EDU [128.2.222.173] in /afs/cs/user/ralf/pub (switch there with a *single* command) as inter35a.zip, inter35b.zip, and inter35c.zip. It's downloadable as pd1:inter35*.zip from Simtel /pc/programming/inter35*.zip from garbo. These versions were uploaded in early June 1993; updates are announced every few months in comp.archives.msdos.announce. There is a book, {PC Interrupts: A Programmer's Reference to BIOS, DOS, and Third-Party Calls} by Ralf Brown and Jim Kyle (Addison-Wesley; ISBN 0-201-57797-6). This corresponds to INTER26 with the most important new material from INTER27, so the on-line list contains more current information (and more information) than the book. QC03. What and where is "Ralf Brown's interrupt list"? See the preceding Q. QC04. Where can I find lex, yacc, and language grammars? The FAQ list of the comp.compilers newsgroup answers this for Basic, C, Pascal, and other languages. See later in this section. QC05. What's the best book to learn programming? Sorry, this FAQ list cannot settle religious arguments. Much of the heat over this topic arises because each person believes that the book that he or she learned from is the best book. But my observation is that different people have very different experiences of the same book. The only person who can tell you which is the best book for learning a given topic is you. Your best bet is to go to a fairly well-stocked bookstore when you have a couple of hours to spare. Start at one end of the shelf and work your way methodically through every book that looks like it might cover what you want to learn. Look at the tables of contents; read a page or two from each book. Then make your decision. If money is a problem, or if you're not sure of your choice, check out your top two or three from your library. QC06. Where are FAQ lists archived? (rev: 27 Apr 1993) Very possibly the FAQ list you want is already at your site. Check the newsgroup news.answers; if your site doesn't carry news.answers, check comp.answers, rec.answers, etc., according to the top-level name in the FAQ list's "home" newsgroup. Articles are posted to the *.answers groups in a way that should make them last until the next versions are posted. If they expire sooner at your site, you might want to lobby your sysadmin to treat the moderated *.answers groups as a special case and grant them longer expiry times than other groups. To ftp the FAQ lists, connect to rtfm.mit.edu, which is operated by Jonathan Kamens (jik@gza.com) at MIT. Change to directory /pub/usenet/news.answers. The name of the file that you want is the Archive-name from the top of the article. For instance, to retrieve this article you would get msdos-programmer-faq/part4. By email (only if you have no ftp access, please), the server is mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu; file names omit the leading "/pub/". For instructions about the mail server, send a message with "help" and "index" on different lines. Not just FAQ lists, but every article listed in the "List of Periodic Informational Postings" (LoPIP) can be obtained by ftp or email from rtfm.mit.edu. If you have an old copy of an informational article, look for an "Archive-name" at the beginning; rtfm.mit.edu stores it under that name in /pub/usenet/news.answers. If the article has no Archive-name, check the first name on the Newsgroups line and change to that directory under /pub/usenet. QC07. Where can I get the latest copy of this FAQ list? (rev: 22 Apr 1993) It is posted to news.answers in such a way that it should stick around until the next version has been posted. Please check news.answers or comp.answers first, looking for the Subject line "comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ". If the article has expired from your site's news.answers, or your site doesn't get news.answers, you can retrieve the latest version of this list as /pub/usenet/news.answers/msdos-programmer-faq/part* via ftp or email from rtfm.mit.edu; see previous Q pd1:faqp*.zip from Simtel /pc/doc-net/faqp*.zip from garbo. QC08. How do I use ftp? (new: 16 Mar 1993) I have been much impressed with {The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog} by Ed Krol (O'Reilly & Associates, ISBN 1-56592-025-2). It gives lots of information on using ftp, email, Telnet, Archie, etc. As a new user of ftp (January 1993), I found the information made me productive quickly. Disclosure: Though I don't believe it has biased my judgment, you should know that O'Reilly sent me a free evaluation copy. You may also want to look for the "Beginner's Guide to FTP", posted periodically in comp.binaries.ibm.pc. You can retrieve it from rtfm.mit.edu (see "Where are FAQ lists archived?", above), in /pub/usenet/comp.binaries.ibm.pc, as (hang on!) v21inf05:_b.m,_B_s_G_t_F_V1.7_(p_01_01) . (end of comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ) -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems brown@Ncoast.ORG Can't find FAQ lists? ftp to 'rtfm.mit.edu' and look in /pub/usenet (or email me >>> with valid reply-to address <<< for instructions).