Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!samsung!uunet!mcsun!sunic!tut!ra!uwasa.fi!ts
From: ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi LASK)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: v05i069: blockcur, force block cursor
Keywords: payware
Message-ID: <1989Nov19.191931.29719@uwasa.fi>
Date: 19 Nov 89 19:19:31 GMT
References: <1074@cirrusl.UUCP> <2351@cbnewsj.ATT.COM> <1049@chyde.uwasa.fi> <4899@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi LASK)
Organization: University of Vaasa, Finland
Lines: 32

In article <4899@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> psfales@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (Peter Fales) writes:
>In article <1049@chyde.uwasa.fi>, ts@chyde.uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi LASK) writes:
>> Stopping the blinking is quite another
>> matter.  In fact the programs with the (seemingly) unblinking
>> cursor, do not use a cursor at all! They subsitute the cursor with
>> ascii 219 or ascii 220.
>
>Before I decided on BLOCKCUR, I tried out a commercial program called
>"Ken Skier's No-Squint Cursor."  I have seen it sold several places.  It
>makes the cursor stop blinking, but uses a lot of CPU cycles to "follow"
>the hardware cursor around with a solid block character.  

This indeed would be the way to do the nonblinking cursor.  It would
have to be a resident program repeating a cycle of two interrupts. 
The first one would have to test where the current cursor is, and
the second one would have to write the block at that location as
fast as possible.  This sounds ok in theory, and the two interrupts
are easy to access, but my guess is that phasing problems (as you
indicate below) would be very tricky.  I may be wrong, but I doubt
whether this would be practical at all, and your experience is
confirmatory evidence.  But perhaps I should experiment. 

>The program's documentation admitted that it might not be compatible with
>all applications, escpecially time-critical ones like modem programs.  I

Yes, no wonder.  And what about if there is a program running that
hooks the same interrupts?

...................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi                                (Site 128.214.12.3)
School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland
Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: vakk::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun