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Documentation for VgaRow.Exe last revision is 05-22-1993 for version 1.21.
Produced by Patrick T. Wolfert, (c) Copyright 1993. All Rights Reserved.
What is VgaRow?
VgaRow.Exe is a program which may be executed from the DOS Config.Sys file
as a device driver or from the DOS command prompt as a standard executable
file to change the number of rows currently being displayed by a VGA
adapter on either a color or monochrome monitor.
Why use VgaRow?
Use VgaRow when you want to change the number of text rows being displayed
on your computer's monitor. It will let you change rows to either 50, 43,
28, 25, 21, 14, or 12 rows with or without clearing the screen.
You may want to change this for a whole host of reasons:
1. Reduce eye strain.
2. Prevent Config.sys initialization messages from scrolling off
of the screen before they can be read; This is the reason why
I wrote the device driver part of the program which came first.
3. Confuse network snooper programs which transmit an image of the
screen back to another node on the network, with or without the
knowledge of the person being viewed. The NetBIOS program at an
office where I have worked tosses cookies to the viewer for any
number of rows other than 25.
4. Setting up nice looking small OS/2 2.0 DOS windows without
having any scroll bars around to muck them up.
5. You want to see more of that spreadsheet you have been working
on but even just the thought of that 132 column mode and it's
tiny characters makes your eyes cross.
6. Same as 5 but the 132 column mode is not supported or does not
look nice in some graphical environment you are working in.
(7. A place for the ones I didn't think of.)
What is VgaRow compatible with?
VgaRow requires that the host computer have a VGA adapter and a BIOS which
supports the basic VGA functions of setting the scan lines, mode, and font.
VgaRow has an option which disables VGA detection for those video adapters
which are capable of some of the modes such as the EGA adapter which should
be able to run 43 or 21 rows fine.
VgaRow has been tested with MS DOS 3.2, IBM DOS 3.3, IBM DOS 4.01,
IBM DOS 5.0, and IBM OS/2 2.0 GA using a DOS Window or a
Virtual DOS Machine and has been found to work in all cases either when
loaded as a device driver or when invoked from the command prompt.
It has been tested on both ISA and EISA based PCs having either a Diamond
Stealth VRAM, or an Orchid ProDesigner VGA graphics adapter.
It has been tested (and developed) under QuarterDeck's DesqView which does
not toss any cookies but may or may not change the mode depending on how DV
and it's windows are set up and the position of the sun. It has not been
tested under MicroSoft Windows at all.
VgaRow's code is complied for the 8086 meaning that it will run on any
80x86 based computer or close compatible.
DOS compatibility notes:
Versions of DOS previous to version 5 (maybe 4) do not detect the number of
rows on the screen dynamically when programs such as Dir /p or More need to
know when to pause. DOS 3.3 for example seems to always think there is only
25 rows no matter how many or few there really are. IBM DOS 5 processes
Dir /p and More correctly no matter how many rows are set.
The device driver and executable format should be good for DOS 2 and up
but I have read that some versions of DOS 2 do not have the executable
file loader present at the time Config.Sys is processed so .EXE files
cannot be in Config.Sys. My program will not work under those conditions.
OS/2 2.0 compatibility notes:
VgaRow.Exe works in any regular OS/2 DOS Command window or full screen
session or any window or full screen session of a Virtual DOS Machine. I
have tested only VDM's booted from image files but have tested images of
IBM DOS 3.3 and IBM DOS 5.0 and both allow VgaRow to be used in any
invokation. VgaRow makes nice 14 row DOS windows which can be maximized and
then have a small font applied to them yielding a scroll bar free window
of a small height streching across the screen. I find it quite useful for
the commands that require it.
The Disclaimer (copied from another shareware project I completed):
This software carries ABSOLUTLY NO warranty whatsoever, this program
works on the author's system and is not guaranteed to work on anyone
else's system. The owner/author, Patrick T. Wolfert, will not be held
liable for ANY damages caused by this program to any system. If you are
in doubt as to this program's suitability for your system then simply
do not run it!
The License:
This program is not free, it is distributed as shareware, meaning that
you are encouraged to try it out on your own system and upload it to as
many systems as you would like to, but that after a reasonable trial
period not to exceed one month of use you are required to pay for it's
continued use.
Payment is ten dollars ($10) per computer which will have it's screen
rows modified by VgaRow payable in United States currency.
Please remit to:
Patrick T. Wolfert
580 Main Street, Suite 1320
New York, N.Y., 10044
Multiple computer licensing information is available upon request.
If desired, I will send the latest or next copy of the program and
documentation files to your address if it is supplied. Any license granted
will apply to all versions of VgaRow which have not yet been released.
Instructions:
VgaRow may be loaded from either the Config.Sys file or from the DOS
command prompt. VgaRow requires NO resident memory; Loading as a device
driver is simply a convenience to prevent messages from scrolling off
of the screen on computers which process many programs within their
Config and Autoexec files.
VgaRow may also be executed from other programs; LoadHi /GS indicates
that 2576 run-time bytes of memory are used by VgaRow 1.21.
VgaRow will always display a message indicating it's processing status.
To invoke VgaRow from your Config.Sys file add a line consisting of the
following anywhere in the file where you want the screen rows to change:
DEVICE=[d:][path]VgaRow.Exe [options]
Replace the [d:] with an optional drive specification, the [path] with
an optional path specification and [options] with any options you may
wish to pass to Vgarow to modify it's execution. Do not place the VgaRow
invokation in between any device commands which must load consecutively.
To invoke VgaRow from the command line type the following:
[d:][path]VgaRow [options]
Replace the [d:] with an optional drive specification, the [path] with
an optional path specification and [options] with any options you may
wish to pass to Vgarow to modify it's execution.
Options available to modify the operation of VgaRow:
Options to VgaRow are typed after it's invokation. Options are not case
sensitive and consist of a row count or short word or abbrieviation.
Options may be typed in any order; If multiple conflicting options are
present then only the last applicable one is used since it's values
will overwrite any set by previous options.
Option Function
? VgaRow does nothing but display a quick syntax message.
50 VgaRow will set the adapter to display 50 rows.
This is the default number of screen rows.
43 VgaRow will set the adapter to display 43 rows.
28 VgaRow will set the adapter to display 28 rows.
25 VgaRow will set the adapter to display 25 VGA rows.
25V VgaRow will set the adapter to display 25 VGA rows.
25E VgaRow will set the adapter to display 25 EGA rows.
25C VgaRow will set the adapter to display 25 CGA rows.
21 VgaRow will set the adapter to display 21 rows.
14 VgaRow will set the adapter to display 14 rows.
12 VgaRow will set the adapter to display 12 rows.
NoCls VgaRow will not clear the screen.
This is the default for screen clearing.
Cls VgaRow will clear the screen and 'home' the cursor.
+ Enable VGA detect. This is the default.
- Disable VGA detect.
*Results are undefined for non-VGA adapters.
N and C may be used in place of NoCls and Cls respectively.
Examples follow:
Device=c:\util\Vgarow.exe Change rows to 50 without clearing.
Device=c:\util\Vgarow.exe Cls 28 Change rows to 28, clear screen.
VgaRow ? Display a help message only.
VgaRow 43 - Display 43 rows, no clear screen,
disable VGA detection.
Usage notes:
I do not have a monochrome VGA monitor to test this program with so
the special monochrome code is untested at this time. If you use this
program with monochrome VGA please let me know how it turns out. The
differences for monochrome are that screen mode 3 is used instead of 7
and the program message colors should be plain white. No video card
I tested this with was capable of emulating monochrome so that my
program (or any other for that matter) could detect it properly.
If you are using a display page other than page zero as the active page
the program will probably reset the screen to page zero as the active
page. I do not know this for sure and have not tested it under this
condition.
The only place in OS/2 2.0 that I have not invoked it from is the device
line of the DOS settings for a regular OS/2 DOS session.
The difference between the CGA, EGA, and VGA 25 row modes is the number
of scan lines put on the screen. Each is visibly different.
The program requires about 3K of memory and switches to an internal stack
for both device driver and DOS EXEC execution.
Author's notes:
This program is written in 8086 Assembler. It was assembled using
XASM, The Brand X Assembler by Access, a very very good assembler
compatible with MASM, so compatible it probably could never be released.
Thank-you to whoever wrote it!
In May of 1991 I typed in a debug script from what I think was PC Magazine.
In a letter to the editor there was a small 21 byte COM file which set
the screen to 28 rows. I thought that it was pretty cool and learned more
about the video services. While learning about the video services I saw
that other row counts were possible. In December 1992 after getting a
new video adapter I made a 50 row version of the 21 byte file which got me
wondering if it could be done in Config.Sys so that I would not miss
any messages output by programs starting up in Config or Autoexec.
Recently I had some time to do this and so VgaRow was born. It was started
on May 15, 1993, some hours later the first device driver version gave my
screen 50 rows. Quarterdeck's Device program was very useful since I could
test my program in a Desqview window without having to reboot my computer
every time the program freaked out (developing device drivers tend to do
that). After the program was stable I decided to make an .EXE out of the
.SYS version which would load both ways and operate using the same syntax.
The program grew to many many times the size of the original .SYS version
but added many features such as picking the rows and choosing the screen
clearing option. Now it probably takes less space than two separate
programs would take.
The first version to be released to the public is VgaRow version 1.21 of
May 21, 1993.
Questions, Comments, Suggestions, or Criticisms?
They are all welcome, send them all to me at:
Patrick T. Wolfert
580 Main Street, Suite 1320
New York, N.Y., 10044
Hopefully VgaRow can help to make using your computer more efficient
and enjoyable than it otherwise would have been.
Copyrights, Trademarks, and other protections:
Desqview is property of Quarterdeck Office Systems.
IBM DOS is property of IBM Corporation.
LoadHi is property of Quarterdeck Office Systems.
MS DOS is property of MicroSoft Corporation.
OS/2 is property of IBM Corporation.
VgaRow is property of Patrick T. Wolfert.
- Fini -