From: cat AT animal DOT u-net DOT com Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp,comp.os.msdos.programmer,comp.programming,comp.arch.embedded Subject: Re: Printing strings in VGA 13h mode (or other graphical mode) Message-ID: <38522051.91561537@news.f9.net.uk> References: <82seje$tom$1 AT nnrp1 DOT deja DOT com> X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235 Lines: 165 Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 10:18:35 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.56.123.239 X-Complaints-To: abuse AT plus DOT net DOT uk X-Trace: wards 944908841 212.56.123.239 (Sat, 11 Dec 1999 10:40:41 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 10:40:41 GMT To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com On Sat, 11 Dec 1999 02:57:51 GMT, Nuno DOT Felicio AT bigfoot DOT com wrote: > Hi > > Hi. How can I write a string(or a simple char) to the screen when > I'm in graphical mode (for example, mode 13h)? > I can't use any bios or Dos function (no interruptions). > In other words, I've to access directly the video memory. > I know how to "write" pixels, but how to send a char? > > I know that the card has built in font(??), but how can I use it to > write a simple string in a certain coordinate in a screen? > Or do I have to draw each letter I want? > (I don't need to change the font........) > > I'm programming in C (Msc6.0) but I can use some ASM. > > Many thanks > Nuno DOT Felicio AT bigfoot DOT com > Greetings from Portugal. > > EDUCATIONAL AND LEISURE SOFTWARE ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW !!!! DJGPP Compiled version for DOS/WINDOWS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- D4 is an Array Processing Language based on APL. APL was one of the first intereactive computer languages. It was invented in the 1950s by K. Iverson, a Harvard econimics professor. Later on APL was developed by IBM and marketed to banks and so on. APL preceded BASIC, but APL never made the mass market. For a start it's notation reqired special fonts and symbols in the days of hardcopy terminals. D4 is an ASCII based system. It has been used to create load and go scripts for art installations. Everything is in plaintext files. D4 is meant to be used in schools, healthcare applications, and can be used for ascii animations, preparation of World Wide Web content or passing the time by playing backgammon. Organisations which have shown interest include NASA, The Las-Vegas Wizards, various universities, financial and telecomms companies worldwide. The package comes with scripts for restarting dead machines, bundling and compressing files for easy movement of databases and data trawling the local and networked disks. It runs on DOS, WINDOWS and LINUX machines. Full documentation and source code is provided and all fit on a single floppy. The Chinese text facility may require a second floppy for the Hanzi fonts. Databases are easily portable between machines. Public domain software (non Copyright) d44r + gzip. Data privacy may be maintained by stealth. Works over networks. Easy conversion of any output to HTML. The software works on the SLURP principal. You decide when to feed the database. Data input routines can take the input from email or floppy discs, CD-ROMS etc. In the case of floppy discs the user can do a quick visual scan for viruses. It can work alongside your existing databases. The archive facility will facilitate the moving of your existing databases to cheaper machines. The software is quite capable of giving animated business plans. It is based on economic modelling software that has been used for decades. In addition it has features similar to the AWK utility of UNIX. The system is designed to work in languages other than English. The first version ran on computers in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. Left to Right, and Right to Left data input are both possible. Old machines become the most effective firewall. They can generally read and write disks that WINDOWS 95 systems refuse to recognise. This facility is available only on DOS versions. The scripting language mimics a UNIX shell, but has many more screen driven features. The built in text editor can handle tables and reports with lines up to 4000 (8000 with DJGPP version) characters long. That is more than enough for many applications. D4, the scripting language contains unique functions not found in many previous database systems. Sophisticated frequency count functions obviate the need for index files or index fields, thus eliminating the need for a tedious database design process. D4 contains a unique 'tiny curses' (i.e. less than ten functions) system for full screen I/O. This can either be by direct memory mapping, or simulated memory mapping with ANSII escape sequences to work on giant 600x800 virtual DEC/VT100 character terminals. All screen routines test the size of the screen so many scripts will work unchanged on small screens in mobile phones. D4 would make an excellent choice for both client and server software in the up and coming mobile phone market. The gzipped LINUX interpretor is about 50Kb. The 32-bit version with enough ROM would easily hold the wordlists and look-up functions to allow text entry via a phone style keypad. The really crude and primitive graphics facility also mean that most existing graphic functions would look quite good on a mobile phone. The entire graphics library is in a single C-source file (600 lines). It was originally designed to produce both English and Arabic windows on the same screen, but it worked rather too slowly on the 386 machines of the day. lean'n'mean (C) T.Goddard c:/d4/gc/d4x.exe (C) Tony Goddard Belfast & Sheffield 1999 (0114) 2817156 cat AT animal DOT u-net DOT com http://www.webstrand.org/tony/pics.htm BAKPAGE SOFTWARE ftp://ftp.webstrand.org/d4 To get a selection of novelty fonts and also info on how to set the VGA fonts in text mode download d4t.exe (d4x.exe is GCC version) then dec99.4rz, dec99x.4rz. Un zip the .4rz files with gzip. run d4t or d4x in a DOS box with d4t dec99.ar Say no to the licence screen. Exit the program. Run d4t (d4x) again with the command line d4x test.afn for the D-shell $ prompt. Read some of the doc files. try the command line vi /djgpp/info/libc.inf for example, or file /djgpp/info/gcc*.inf grep SIGSEGV /djgpp/info/inf*.* ... then press ^L to look at any relevent file. DJGPPers with limited hard disk space could try out the D-shell as a poor man's IDE The D-shell tries to be similar to EMACS, but instead of LISP as the processing language it uses a spartan version of APL (limited array dimensions). I already used D4 to build up a 4 floppy working set of GCC containing the info files, GCC for C only, and Make. The 'vi', 'awk' 'grep' 'find' imitators are short APL style scripts. The D4 distribution includes C source work arounds for several problems addressed in this newsgroup. Documentation is sparse because I cannot yet afford to pay employees to do it better. > >Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ >Before you buy.