OpenEuphoria

1. Cannot load VDM IPX/SPX support

• Posted by don cole <doncole at pacbell.net> May 02, 2005
• 504 views

I have a lengthy Euphoria DOS program that uses 

if graphics_mode(18) then
 puts(1, "need VGA graphics!\n")
 abort(1)
end if
 
 set_display_page(0)
 set_active_page(3)
  --load & display a bunch of stuff (unseen at this time)
 set_active_page(2)
  --load & display a bunch of stuff (unseen at this time)
 set_active_page(1)
  --load & display a bunch of stuff (unseen at this time)
 set_active_page(0)
  --Start program
  --when the correct key is pressed,
  
  set_display_page(1)
  set_active_page(1)--page 1 is now seen and ready for input

This works fine in Win95 & Win98 but in Win2000 I get the above warning
 and page 2 and 3 are both displayed.
 Page 2 on the top of the screen and page3 on the bottom of the screen.

 Does anybody know what's going on here?

 Don Cole
 SF

3. Re: Cannot load VDM IPX/SPX support

• Posted by Alexander Toresson <alexander.toresson at gmail.com> May 02, 2005
• 476 views

Bernie Ryan wrote:
> 
> don cole wrote:
> >  Does anybody know what's going on here?
> > 
> 
> Don:
> 
> Did you try use_vesa() ?
> 

That can't be it, because his program doesn't use any svga mode, and thus vesa
or anything else ain't used.

I don't consider this a bug in ex.exe -- Windows 2000 and XP both have big
problems emulating DOS, especially graphics, sound and non-conventional memory.
Maybe it can be worked around, but I dunno how. What happens if it's run in
fullscreen, or is it already running in fullscreen?

Anyway, the fact that w2k and xp has bad dos emulation is a good argument for
not developing for dos at all.

Regards, Alexander Toresson

5. Re: Cannot load VDM IPX/SPX support

• Posted by don cole <doncole at pacbell.net> May 02, 2005
• 498 views

Alexander Toresson wrote:

> That can't be it, because his program doesn't use any svga mode, and thus vesa
> or anything
> else ain't used.
> 
> I don't consider this a bug in ex.exe -- Windows 2000 and XP both have big
> problems
> emulating DOS, especially graphics, sound and non-conventional memory. Maybe
> it can
> be worked around, but I dunno how. What happens if it's run in fullscreen, or
> is it
> already running in fullscreen?
> 
> Anyway, the fact that w2k and xp has bad dos emulation is a good argument for
> not developing
> for dos at all.
> 
> Regards, Alexander Toresson
> 

I fixed the VDM IPX/SPX problem it was remnant from an old Netware install.

But It didn't fix the split screen problem.

I am using fullscreen.

I have been working on this program since 1997 , it's a little late not to 

develope it.

don cole
SF

7. Re: Cannot load VDM IPX/SPX support

• Posted by Alexander Toresson <alexander.toresson at gmail.com> May 03, 2005
• 481 views

Hayden McKay wrote:
> 
> Some adaptors require that you use the "use_vesa()" even in VGA 8-bit modes.
> This is because some VGA modes on the controller may be Non-VGA compatable.
> This means that you can not program the VGA controller via the VGA ports.

The mode he tried to set is mode 18, 640x480 16 colors (4-bit). It's one of the
most standardized vga modes.

> For example my SIS6326 8Mb AGP accelerator needs to use "use_vesa()" for
> most standard VGA modes (except linear mode 19) because the architecture of 
> the VGA 8-bit modes on it are based on a Non-VGA controller.

Which modes do you refer to?

> n.b. SVGA modes are defined by VESA as having 15 -> 32 bit pixels. Euphoria
> DOES NOT support ANY SVGA modes.

It does. SVGA is defined as modes with a resolution of at least 800x600, and you
can use those modes with vesa vbe, or by calling the video bios directly. Vesa
vbe is the preffered option, because most cards support it. However, the vesa vbe
support can be buggy for some cards. Vesa vbe does include modes that are 15-32
bit and have a lower resolution than 800x600.

Regards, Alexander Toresson

9. Re: Cannot load VDM IPX/SPX support

• Posted by Alexander Toresson <alexander.toresson at gmail.com> May 03, 2005
• 499 views

don cole wrote:
> 
> Alexander Toresson wrote:
> > 
> > Hayden McKay wrote:
> > > 
> > > Some adaptors require that you use the "use_vesa()" even in VGA 8-bit
> > > modes.
> > > This is because some VGA modes on the controller may be Non-VGA
> > > compatable.
> > > This means that you can not program the VGA controller via the VGA ports.
> > 
> > The mode he tried to set is mode 18, 640x480 16 colors (4-bit). It's one of
> > the most
> > standardized vga modes.
> > 
> > > For example my SIS6326 8Mb AGP accelerator needs to use "use_vesa()" for
> > > most standard VGA modes (except linear mode 19) because the architecture
> > > of
> > > the VGA 8-bit modes on it are based on a Non-VGA controller.
> > 
> > Which modes do you refer to?
> > 
> > > n.b. SVGA modes are defined by VESA as having 15 -> 32 bit pixels.
> > > Euphoria
> > > DOES NOT support ANY SVGA modes.
> > 
> > It does. SVGA is defined as modes with a resolution of at least 800x600, and
> > you can
> > use those modes with vesa vbe, or by calling the video bios directly. Vesa
> > vbe is the
> > preffered option, because most cards support it. However, the vesa vbe
> > support can
> > be buggy for some cards. Vesa vbe does include modes that are 15-32 bit and
> > have a
> > lower resolution than 800x600.
> > 
> > Regards, Alexander Toresson
> > 
> 
> The reason I selected mode 18 is because it is the only mode that supports 
> 4 different graphic pages. Very important to the stucture of my program.
> 
> Display_page(0)
> Display_page(1)
> Display_page(2)
> Display_page(3)
> 
> I forget the chart but some modes support 2 pages and others only one.
> 
> Will these other modes and the use of "use_vera()" support 4 pages?
> 
> don cole
> SF
> 

That depends. Mode 18 is a standard vga mode, which you actually can't set
through vesa vbe. But euphoria may be setting 640x480 4-bit through a gfx
card-vendor specific interface, which the fact that you get 4 pages suggests. A
standard vga card has 256k memory, and that is what is accessible through the vga
interface. One page in the 640x480 mode uses 640 * 480 * 4/8 = 153600 bytes. Thus
you can just fit one page in memory in mode 18, when using the vga interface, and
there is no guarantee that you get more than 1 page on any card, cos you don't
know what interface euphoria will use.

There are two things that could happen if you try adding use_vesa():

1. No change, it still uses the vendor-specific interface. 640x480 4-bit is not
available through vesa vbe.

2. You get just one page, it uses the vga interface.

Regards, Alexander Toresson

11. Re: Cannot load VDM IPX/SPX support

• Posted by don cole <doncole at pacbell.net> May 07, 2005
• 490 views

Hayden McKay wrote:
> 
> After doing some research I found that Alexander was correct as mode 18 only
> has 1 video page. maybee 4 planes is mistaken as 4 pages. That could explain
> the screen output not being displayed as expected.
> 
 That is correct. I un-corectly stated I was using Graphics Mode 18 in Win95
 and when I switchesd to Win2000 it messed up.

Actually I was using no Graphics Mode commands so I was using the default
graphics
mode in Win 95 (which turned out to be 3) [8 pages][I'm only using 4].

So I forced Win 2000 with:
  junk=graphics_Mode(3)
and everything worked ok.

Sorry to have given you guys erroneous information but I wrote this program
back in '97 and I forgot what I had done.

Thank you for your help anyway.

don cole
SF