Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!haven!vrdxhq!daitc!ida.org!roskos
From: roskos@ida.org (Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: VGA Programming
Message-ID: <995@csed-55.IDA.ORG>
Date: 23 May 89 13:58:18 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: IDA, Alexandria, VA
Lines: 33

I recently purchased a VGA board for my AT, for use in a high-resolution
graphics application I'm working on.  Although the board works really
well (I am currently using it with my old Hercules-compatible monochrome
display, until I save up for a real VGA-compatible display, and am
surprised to find it correctly configures itself into Hercules mode and
works with programs I've written that used the old Hercules board,
automatically), the manual that comes with it only tells how to install
it, and how to run some nonstandard graphics programs with it.  There
is no programming information at all, other than an intriguing list of
all the modes it operates in.

Can someone recommend a *good* book on programming the VGA? I have seen
some books (e.g., by Peter Norton) on programming the PS/2 that make
passing mention of the VGA, but there is very little detail.  From what
I can see based on the status program that came with the board, it
appears to have a very large number of modes and options. 

I know that the PS/2 Model 50 and 60 Technical Manual has a section on
the VGA, and is probably the authoritative source, but I am trying to
find something a little more reasonably priced.  I have Microsoft's "PC
Programmer's Sourcebook," but it has very little information on the VGA
in it, just some cursory descriptions of addressing, and a list of
registers (with no description of their purposes, just labels like
"General Output Register"). 

Any recommendations?
-- 
Eric Roskos (roskos@CS.IDA.ORG or Roskos@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL)

        The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed
        than he who reads them: inasmuch as he who knows nothing is
        nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods
        and errors.   --Thos. Jefferson, 1807