DP Tool Club 15/CD_ASCQ_15_070894.iso/vrac/pwrpak.zip/PWRPAK.TXT

Text File | 1994-05-19 | 21KB | 542 lines

Borland PowerPack for DOS
Version 1.0
Evaluator's Guide







PART 1
Introduction

About this guide
Welcome to the Borland PowerPack for DOS evaluator's guide.  The Borland
PowerPack for DOS is a complete suite of DOS development tools and
libraries designed to work with Borland C+ 4.0.  The purpose of this
guide is to provide an understanding of the features and benefits found
in this powerful new product.

Part 2, Introducing Borland PowerPack for DOS, provides a capsule
summary of the features and benefits of the product.

Part 3, Borland PowerPack for DOS In Depth, provides greater detail
about  product features and components.

Part 4 provides information on hardware and software requirements, as
well as installation and storage requirements.



PART 2
Introducing Borland PowerPack for DOS

The Borland PowerPack for DOS provides several important features for
DOS developers:

+     royalty free 16 and 32-bit DOS Extenders
+     more application memory
+     faster application performance
+     code reuse through DOS DLLs
+     16- and 32-bit Borland Graphics Interface libraries
+     support for the newest super vga video cards
+     16- and 32-bit Turbo Vision libraries
+     data validation classes
+     outline viewer object

In addition to developing for graphical environments such as Windows and
OS/2, most programmers continue to develop and maintain DOS applications
as well.  The reason is simple.  DOS has by far the largest installed
base of any operating system, and will continue to sell well into the
foreseeable future.  In fact, recent surveys have indicated that one out
of every five personal computers sold this year will be installed with
DOS only.  Clearly, DOS will continue to represent a substantial market
opportunity for some time to come.

Despite its tremendous success, DOS has some serious limitations.  Most
notable is the fact that DOS relies on the 16-bit segmented memory
architecture used by the Intel 8086 microprocessor.  Newer
microprocessors such as the 80386 and 80486 must emulate this
architecture to run DOS.  The 8086 architecture limits the range of
addressable memory to 1MB.  Even worse, by default DOS applications can
access only the first 640K bytes of this memory.  The remaining 384K is
used by the system for video memory, the BIOS, and as ROM for expansion
cards.  Although the majority of personal computers sold today contain
four or more megabytes of RAM memory, this additional memory is unable
to be addressed without substantial effort.  As DOS applications
increase in complexity, developers are finding the memory limitations of
DOS to be unacceptable.

The best solution to this problem is a DOS Extender.  A DOS Extender
utilizes the advanced features of 80286 and newer microprocessors to
allow transparent access to all machine memory.  An application that
manipulates a pointer to memory need not worry whether this memory was
allocated above the 1MB limit or below it.  Further, a DOS Extender
still allows access to DOS and BIOS calls, interrupt handlers, and other
low-level techniques common in today's software.

The Borland PowerPack for DOS contains a powerful set of development
tools and libraries for the DOS developer.  Included are both a 16-bit
and a 32-bit DOS Extender which allow programmers to break through the
640K barrier.  The 32-bit extender is for use with 80386 or better
microprocessors and allows access of up to 4GB of machine memory.  The
16-bit extender is for use the 80286 or better microprocessors and
allows access of up to 16MB of machine memory.  As an added benefit,
both extenders enable dynamic link libraries (DLL's) to be shared
between DOS and Windows.  Applications written using the DOS Extenders
included in the PowerPack will work with any DPMI server that provides
.9 DPMI services or better. Also included in the product are 16 and 32-
bit versions of the popular Borland Graphics Interface (BGI) library.
This library provides a complete set of functions for creating high
performance graphics applications.  In addition, the Borland PowerPack
for DOS includes 16 and 32-bit versions of the Turbo Vision 2.0
application framework for creating event-driven text mode interfaces for
DOS applications.



Features and Benefits

The Borland PowerPack for DOS makes it easy to unlock the power of
today's microprocessors.  With both 16 and 32-bit DOS Extenders, the
lightning fast BGI graphics library, and the Turbo Vision application
framework, the Borland PowerPack for DOS provides all of the necessary
tools for creating sophisticated DOS applications.


16 and 32-bit DOS Extenders

More DOS memory.  Applications built using the Borland PowerPack for DOS
break through the 640K memory barrier.  The 32-bit DOS Extender not only
increases the amount of addressable memory to 4GB, but makes
applications easier to develop by providing a flat address space.
Applications written with the 32-bit DOS Extender also show a dramatic
increase in performance since they run in a native 32-bit environment.
The 16-bit DOS Extender allows applications to access up to 16MB of
machine memory.

Royalty free distribution.  The extenders included in the Borland
PowerPack for DOS are completely royalty free.  There are no licensing
or distribution fees.  Now every developer can take advantage of DOS
Extender technology.

Increased code reuse through DOS DLLs.  The DLL technology found in the
Borland PowerPack for DOS allows developers to share DLLs between DOS
and Windows without recompiling.  DLL's written using the 16-bit DOS
Extender can be shared with Windows 3.1, while DLLs written using the
32-bit DOS Extender can be shared with Windows NT and Chicago.

Seamless integration into the Borland C++ 4.0 IDE.  The Borland
PowerPack for DOS integrates directly into the Borland C++ 4.0
environment, so there's no switching between different tools.  Using the
TargetExpert, a developer can select from between Windows, Windows NT,
DOS real mode, and DOS 16- or DOS 32-bit protected mode development with
a click of the mouse.



Borland Graphics Interface

16 and 32-bit libraries.   The Borland PowerPack for DOS includes 16 and
32-bit graphics libraries.  This allows programmers to add charts,
graphics, and animation to their protected mode applications.

Extended graphics driver support.  The new 32-bit BGI library supports
more video cards and resolutions.  Supported video cards include TSENG,
PARADISE, VIDEO7, TRIDENT, and all S3 cards.  The 32-bit BGI library can
operate in resolutions as high as 1280x1024.

High Performance.  The BGI libraries included in the Borland PowerPack
for DOS were written in assembly language to provide superior
performance.  Applications that use the 32-bit graphics libraries will
typically perform twice as fast as those that use the 16-bit graphics
libraries.


Turbo Vision 2.0 Framework

16- and 32-bit libraries. Turbo Vision 2.0 works in real mode and both
16- and 32-bit protected mode.  This gives Turbo Vision 2.0 applications
megabytes of memory to work with.

Data validation classes.  Using the validator objects makes it easy to
add data validation to any existing or new Turbo Vision applications.
Validator objects are connected to edit control objects to validate the
information a user types into an edit control.  For example, you can add
a use a validator to create an edit control that will only accept
numeric input.

Outline viewer object.  The new outline viewer object presents data in a
hierarchical format, allowing users to incorporate sophisticated outline
displays in their applications.




PART 3
Borland PowerPack for DOS in Depth



16 and 32-bit DOS Extenders

By allowing programmers to break through the 640K barrier, DOS Extenders
help unlock the power of todays microprocessors.  And with the flat
memory model provided by Borland's 32-bit extender, DOS programming
becomes easier than ever before. No longer do programmers have to worry
about near and far pointers or segment arithmetic.  Plus, developers get
the benefit of true 32-bit performance.


Compiling for protected mode

Whether compiling from the command line, or using the Borland C++ 4.0
Integrated Development Environment (IDE), creating DOS extended
applications is easy.  You can easily recompile most existing real mode
applications to take advantage of Borland's DOS Extenders.

When using the IDE, simply use the TargetExpert to select DOS 16-bit or
32-bit DPMI targeting.  With a click of the mouse you can choose between
building a DOS extended application or a DOS DLL.

Borland's command line compilers feature new switches to target DOS
extended applications.  For BCC.EXE these switches are:

          -WX             DPMI16 EXE
          -WXD           DPMI16 DLL, all functions exported
          -WXDE          DPMI16 DLL, explicit functions exported

and for BCC32.EXE these switches are:

          -WX            DPMI32 EXE, all functions exported
          -WXD           DPMI32 DLL, all functions exported
          -WXDE          DPMI32 DLL, explicit functions exported



Breaking the 640K barrier

Programmers will exerience a dramatic increase in the memory available
for code and data when using DOS Extenders.

The following program helps illustrate the additional memory available
to a DOS Extended application:

#include <iostream.h>
#include <except.h>

const BLOCK_SIZE = 4096;

#pragma warn -aus
int main( void )
{
     long totalRam = 0;
     char* p;
     try
     {
          for( ;; )
          {
               p = new char[BLOCK_SIZE];
               totalRam += BLOCK_SIZE;
          }
     }
     catch( xalloc)
     {
          cout << "Total memory allocated is " << totalRam <<  end;
     }
     return( 0 );
}

When compiled for real mode, the above program displays the following:

     Total memory allocated is 417792

This occurs even though the computer contains over 12 MB of RAM memory.
When running in real mode, applications must work within the 640K memory
barrier.

When compiled for extended mode, the same program displays the
following:

     Total memory allocated is 13012992

If run from a DOS box in Windows, this program would be able to make use
of virtual memory allowing access to more memory that is physically
available.



Compatibility

Applications created using Borland's DOS Extenders are compatible with a
number of operating environments. Programs written using the 16-bit DOS
Extender run unmodified under DOS, Windows NT, Windows 3.1 DOS boxes,
Windows 3.11 DOS boxes and OS/2 2.x DOS boxes.  Programs written using
the 32-bit DOS Extender in general run under DOS, Windows NT, Windows
3.1 DOS boxes, and OS/2 2.x DOS boxes.  Applications which use
interrupts or IO instructions, or expect to have direct access to
video/DOS memory will generally fail to run under NT.

The 16- and 32-bit extenders support emulation of the non visual Windows
and
Win32 APIs, respectively. An import record is provided for those APIs
which are emulated, so use of unimplemented functions will result in
link time errors.  If you need to use an API function which is not
implemented by the extenders, you can hook unresolved APIs and provide
resolution for them at run time.  To do this, you need to implement and
export a hook function as follows:

FARPROC WINAPI _export
BorlandUnresolvedEntryHook (LPCSTR modName,
                      BOOL     byOrdinal,
                      LPCSTR entry);

 The first parameter is the name of the module for the function, for
example, "KERNEL".  The second parameter tells whether the third
parameter is a string or an ordinal value.  If it is FALSE, then the
third parameter is a string naming the unresolved entry, for example,
"GETATOMNAME".  Your hook function should determine if it is has an
implementation for this entry.  If it does, it should hand back a
pointer to the function.  This will be used by the loader to resolve the
references in the image.



DOS DLLs

The DLL technology found in the Borland PowerPack for DOS allows
developers to share DLLs between DOS and Windows without recompiling.
Developers can create DOS DLL's callable from both DOS and Windows, or
can take advantage of using Windows DLLs from DOS.  This includes many
of the commercially available Windows DLLs, such as the Borland Paradox
Engine.  As long as a Windows DLL doesn't make calls to Windows user
interface or graphics functions, it can be used from DOS.  DLL's written
using the 16-bit DOS Extender can be shared with Windows 3.x, while DLLs
written using the 32-bit DOS Extender can be shared with Windows NT and
Chicago.



Borland Graphics Interface

The Borland PowerPack for DOS includes high performance 16- and 32-bit
versions of the Borland Graphics Interface (BGI) library.  The BGI
library provides over 70 graphics functions, ranging from high-level
calls (such as setviewport, bar3d, and drawpoly) to bit-oriented
functions (such as getimage and putimage).  The graphics library
supports numerous fill and line styles, and provides several text fonts
that you can size, justify, and orient horizontally or vertically.

BGI DLLs

Protected mode BGI support follows a slightly different model from
the real mode graphics library included in Borland C++ 4.0.  The 16 and
32-bit graphics libraries included in the Borland PowerPack are
implemented as DOS DLLs.   The 16- and 32-bit BGI DLLs are called
BGI16.DLL and BGI32.DLL, respectively.  Instead of linking with
GRAPHICS.LIB, you  must link with BGI16.LIB or BGI32.LIB, the import
libraries for 16bit and 32bit applications.


Performance

The performance of the BGI libraries included in the Borland PowerPack
for DOS has been greatly enhanced.  Each of the routines is written in
hand optimized assembly language to provide fast execution.  In
particular, the performance of the 32-bit graphics library is
particularly fast.

The following program demonstrates the speed of the 32-bit graphics
library. This program draws 1000 random polygons on the screen, and then
displays the number of seconds required to perform that task.  The real
mode version takes 7 seconds on a 80486 66MHz machine, while the 32-bit
version takes only 3 seconds on the same machine.  While this program
tests only a small portion of the graphics support in the drivers and
graphics engine, the results are indicative of the overall speed
provided by the 32-bit library.

#include <dos.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <graphics.h>
#include <_defs.h>

struct PTS {
  int x, y;
};

int    GraphDriver;
int    GraphMode;
int    MaxX, MaxY;
int    MaxColors;
int    ErrorCode;

void Initialize(void);
void PolyDemo(void);

//      Begin main function

int main()
{
  time_t t1, t2;

  Initialize();
  t1 = time(NULL);
  PolyDemo();
  t2 = time(NULL);
  closegraph();
  printf( "Time is %ld seconds", t2-t1);
  return(0);
}

//      INITIALIZE: Initializes the graphics system

void Initialize(void)
{
      //  GraphDriver = DETECT;
        GraphDriver = VGA;
    initgraph( &GraphDriver, &GraphMode, "d:\\bc4.0\\bgi" );
    ErrorCode = graphresult();
    if( ErrorCode != grOk )
    {
       printf("Graphics Error: %s\n",grapherrormsg(ErrorCode));
       exit( 1 );
     }
  }
  MaxColors = getmaxcolor( ) + 1;
  MaxX = getmaxx();
  MaxY = getmaxy();
}

//   POLYDEMO: Display a random pattern of polygons on the screen

#define MaxPts          6

void PolyDemo(void)
{
    struct PTS poly[ MaxPts ];
    int color;
    int i, nTimes;

    for(nTimes = 0; nTimes < 1000; nTimes++)
    {
       color = 1 + random( MaxColors-1 );
       setfillstyle( random(10), color );
       setcolor( color );
       for( i=0 ; i<(MaxPts-1) ; i++ ){
          poly[i].x = random( MaxX );
          poly[i].y = random( MaxY );
       }
       poly[i].x = poly[0].x;
       poly[i].y = poly[1].y;
       fillpoly( MaxPts, (int FAR *)poly );
    }
}



Turbo Vision 2.0

Turbo Vision is Borland's application framework for DOS.  It
encapsulates the behavior of a text-mode application that conforms to
the IBM Common User Access (CUA) user interface specification.  With
Turbo Vision, you can inherit an application that has pull-down menus,
overlapping windows, dialog boxes, and mouse support.  Turbo Vision
gives the DOS developer a head start in creating great looking text-mode
applications.

Turbo Vision includes a class hierarchy that supports event handling,
user interface management, and data management.  Turbo Vision includes
over 100 classes, including classes that allow developers to easily
incorporate objects such as calculators, calendars, edit windows, file
open and directory navigation dialog boxes, and a clock in their
applications.

Turbo Vision 2.0 now includes classes for data validation, a multi-state
checkbox, and an outline viewer that presents a hierarchical view of
data.


Extensible Architecture

Turbo Vision classes define a CUA application as a set of abstract
classes that provide a general structure for implementing an interface.
The result is a large body of ready-to-use, high-quality code that can
be inherited directly by your application.

Windowing  User Interface

Turbo Vision provides support for windows and mouse operations, in an
event-driven environment.  The user is relieved of the task of writing
code to define window behavior, manage windowing objects such as menus
and dialog boxes, and read user input.

High-level Objects

Objects such as an editor, a calendar, a calculator, a clock, as well as
standard dialog boxes for opening files and browsing directories, and a
color palette are included in Turbo Vision.  This allows users to
incorporate these features easily in application programs.

Hypertext-help

Programmers can build applications with context-sensitive, hypertext-
based help.




PART 4
Appendix

Hardware/software requirements
A complete installation of the current version of Borland PowerPack for
DOS requires 5 Mb of hard disk space.   The Borland PowerPack for DOS
requires a minimal installation of Borland C++ 4.0.

Installation
Borland PowerPack for DOS installs automatically.  Insert the first disk
of the install set in your A: drive and type install.




PART 5
Conclusion

The Borland PowerPack for DOS solidifies Borland's leadership in C++ and
demonstrates Borland's commitment to bringing the best development tools
to a wide range of environments and operating systems.  This product
provides a series of features important to the DOS developer, such as:

+     royalty free 16 and 32-bit DOS Extenders
+     more application memory
+     faster application performance
+     code reuse through DOS DLLs
+     16 and 32-bit Borland Graphics Interface libraries
+     support for the newest super vga video cards
+     16 and 32-bit Turbo Vision libraries
+     data validation classes
+     outline viewer object

We are confident you will share our enthusiasm for this new suite of
tools for the Borland C++ 4.0 compiler.





BORLAND INTERNATIONAL, INC.   1 BORLAND WAY
P.O. BOX 660001, SCOTTS VALLEY, CA 95067-0001
Copyright 1994 by Borland International, Inc.  All rights reserved.  All
Borland products are trademarks or registered trademarks of Borland
International, Inc.  Other brand and product names are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective holders.
April 1994