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From: toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: How to put MS-DOS into VGA 50-row mode ??
Message-ID: <6888@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Date: 19 Feb 90 15:47:24 GMT
References: <13685@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
Lines: 28

In article <13685@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> tjr@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (thomas.j.roberts) writes:
>How do I get MS-DOS to use the 50-row mode of my VGA?
[...]
>As soon as the program exits, the prompt scrolls the top 25 rows,
>and appears in row 25. From then on, only the upper 25 rows are used
>(but the lower 25 rows displayed by my program remain on the screen,
>unchanged).

>What magic do I need to perform to get MS-DOS to use all 50 rows?
>Why does MS-DOS care, anyway?

MS-DOS doesn't care. ANSI.SYS cares. If you run without ANSI.SYS then all
will be fine. If you need ANSI display support then you need to use either
an ANSI.SYS clone supplied by the display card vendor, or one of many
commercial or PD substitutes available (FANSI-CONSOLE, NANSI.SYS, NNANSI.SYS,
etc. I personnally recommend NNANSI, but then I did that one). These 
substitutes will also give you improved performance over the DOS ANSI.SYS.

There is an alternative of sorts. DOS 4.0 ANSI.SYS does support 43 and 50
line modes. The only difficulty is that while the ANSI clones will support
mode changes with ANSI-like escape sequences, the DOS 4.0 ANSI.SYS expects
you to use the MODE command.  Of course the MODE command to change the
display mode won't work unless the DOS 4.0 ANSI.SYS is used (no substitutes
accepted)!  Way to go, Microsoft!

Tom Almy
toma@tekgvs.labs.tek.com
Standard Disclaimers Apply