To: pgf AT cayman DOT com
Cc: DJGPP List <djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu>, jcrigler AT orl DOT mmc DOT com
Subject: Re: get vga info: int 10, ah == 1b 
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 1994 09:15:39 -0500
From: Jim Crigler <jcrigler AT orl DOT mmc DOT com>

Paul Fox (pgf AT cayman DOT com), author of the great vile editor wrote this:

> has anyone successfully used int 0x10, ah == 0x1b to get information
> about the installed vga?  i have what i sure think looks like good
> code to do it, but it sure ain't workin'.  and i'm pretty sick of it.
> if anyone's used it successfully, could you drop me a line?

Be careful of the answer you get here Paul.  When I was trying to get vile
3.62 (and all the subsequent versions) working with respect to this call,
someone (DJ himself?) replied with a possible solution which I tried.  It
failed abysmally, giving the same result as the DJGPP binary you are currently
distributing:  It sets the video mode to CGA 80x25, losing the VGA text
resolution, i. e., only 80x25 text, and the dots are large and `coarse'.

It is worth noting that vile 3.61, which still has the original video code
from Tuan Dang (who did the original DJGPP port), which I still (sadly) use
on my laptop does the video mode switching properly (even with go32 1.11maint1).

(Now a word from our sponsor [vile]):  Vile is a super text editor, giving
portability across SunOS, VMS and DOS.  Windows, `vi' keystrokes (for those of
us who have our fingers sufficiently burned in).  `ex' (or `:') mode support
is there for the most frequenlty used commands.  Live keystroke recording and
playback.  Multiple buffers, windows.  Macro language (which may need a little
debugging).

Jim Crigler
jcrigler AT orl DOT mmc DOT com