Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!necntc!linus!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!jeffm
From: jeffm@mmintl.UUCP (Jeffrey Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: 50 lines on 6300 display
Message-ID: <2634@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: 2 Jan 88 19:00:36 GMT
Reply-To: jeffm@mmintl.UUCP (Jeffrey Miller)
Organization: Ashton-Tate, E. Hartford, CT.
Lines: 82


*
Here's an interesting question with a brief introduction.

I  just  got  the  new  Masm  5.0  update.  It comes with a batch file
enhancement   program  called  WHAT.ASM.    I  saw  the  .EXE  on  the
distribution  disk  and  ran it immediately on my 6300.  It spit out a
list  of  options.    One had to do with video and although it was not
written  as  "what  /v",  that's  what I typed.  Immedately the screen
went  into  a  new  and  uncharted  (for  me)  mode  of  160x50!   The
characters  were  crystal  clear and well shaped, just half the height
and  what  appeared  to  be  half  width.   But the characters did not
correspond  to  the  keys pressed.  Each time I typed a letter I got 2
vertical  by  1  horizontal  characters  in  1/2 the width of a normal
80x25  character.    I  could  get  the  screen to return to normal by
typing "mode co80."

I  was  unable  to pfix what.exe because from within pfix what's error
handling  worked properly and detected the illegal option of "/v."  So
I  couldn't find out what was going on.  So I used pfix, since it uses
a  different  video  page, to find the video mode the screen was being
put into with

    code      segment

    org       100h
    assume    cs:code

    getmode   proc
    mov       ah,15
    int       10h

(   mov       ah,4ch    ;not used while pfixing
    int       21h
)
    getmode   endp

    code      ends
    end


After  the  int  10h  ah returns the number of columns, al = the mode,
and  bh  =  the active display page.  Lo and behold the video mode was
46h.    Changing  the  above  code  to  ah = 0 and loading al with the
desired  mode,  I  found  that  this  type  of  display comes up after
setting  the  mode to anything above and including 41h and at least up
to 60h.

I  ran MultiMate and exited to DOS from the main menu, set the mode to
46h,  and  returned  to MultiMate.  There were now 4 greeked MultiMate
main  menus  on  my  screen,  each  displaying in miniature the proper
screen.

The  effect  does  not  require  ANSI.SYS.    But I had it loaded so I
played  with  Norton's  SA.COM.  It seems that the background is a bit
map  of  the  attribute  set by SA.  That is, setting the attribute to
blue  (attr  =  01h)  gives  a  single  thin  vertical  line down each
column.    Setting  it  to  blue  on  blue (11h) gives two thin lines.
Setting  it  to  white  on  blue (17h) gives a thin line followed by a
thick  line.    Setting  it to bright white on blue (1fh) gives a thin
line  followed  by  a thicker line.  Setting it to blue on white (71h)
gives  a  thick line followed by a thin line.  And setting it to blink
bright white on white (ffh) made the whole screen white.

What's  going  on  here?   Is this automatically contained in ANSI.SYS
for  the  Xerox 6065, which I hear can display 50 lines?  How can this
be  used?    What  is  the  Xerox  ANSI.SYS  doing?    Are  there  any
applications that can use 50 lines on the 6300?

Jeff

* Jeff Miller                                                              *
* Ashton-Tate                                                              *
* 52 Oakland Avenue,  East Hartford, CT  06108-9911                        *
* (203) 522-2116 x257  UUCP: ...!seismo!utah-cs!utah-gr!pwa-b!mmintl!jeffm *

or ...!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!jeffm
-- 
* Jeff Miller                                                              *
* Multimate International, an Ashton-Tate Co.                              *
* 52 Oakland Avenue,  East Hartford, CT  06108-9911                        *
* (203) 522-2116 x257  UUCP: ...!seismo!utah-cs!utah-gr!pwa-b!mmintl!jeffm *