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- From: brown@NCoast.ORG (Stan Brown)
- Subject: comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ part 1 of 4
- Expires: Fri, 23 Jul 1993 23:18:24 GMT
- Organization: Oak Road Systems, Cleveland Ohio USA
- Distribution: world
- Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1993 23:18:24 GMT
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
- Message-ID: <msdos-faq.9311.1@NCoast.ORG>
- Followup-To: comp.os.msdos.programmer
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- References: none
- Supersedes: <msdos-faq.9310.1@NCoast.ORG>
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- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.os.msdos.programmer:24750 comp.answers:1132 news.answers:9756
-
-
- Archive-name: msdos-programmer-faq/part1
- Last modified: 26 June 1993
-
-
- This is the FAQ list (Frequently Asked Questions list) for the newsgroup
- comp.os.msdos.programmer. Parts 2 through 4 of this article are posted
- as followups in the same thread. Starting 2 Feb 1993, I mark new and
- revised answers with "new:" or "rev:" and the change date.
-
- If the posting date shown above is more than four weeks in the past, see
- instructions in part 4 of this list for how to get an updated copy. (A
- separate article, posted before this one, holds the changes from the
- previous edition. Look for the subject line "comp.os.msdos.programmer
- FAQ diffs".)
-
- FAQ lists are intended to reduce the noise level in their newsgroups
- that results from the repetition of the same questions, correct answers,
- wrong answers, corrections to the wrong answers, corrections to the
- corrections, debate, etc.
-
- This list should serve as a repository of the canonical "best" answers
- to the questions in it. The names of folks who have helped to improve
- this FAQ list follow the table of contents. If you know a better answer
- or even a slight change that improves an answer, please tell me! (Use
- email, please. Traffic in this group is high, and I may miss a relevant
- posted article.)
- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
- brown@ncoast.org
-
- Search tips
- ===========
- To search for specific topics: See the list of questions in the
- Contents section (immediately below) to find which article (part 2, 3,
- or 4) you need. Then, in that part, search for that question number.
- For example, while you're reading part 2 of this list, the trn
- newsreader command "gQ203" goes to Q203.
- To skip one topic and go to the next: Search for "Q" starting in
- column 1. In trn and similar newsreaders, the command "g^Q" does that.
- If your newsreader doesn't support searches, you can extract these
- articles to a file and use your favorite editor's search commands.
-
-
- Contents--part 2 of 4
- =====================
- section 1. General questions
- 101. Why won't my code work?
- 102. What is this newsgroup about?
- 103. What's the difference from comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer?
- 104. Is comp.os.msdos.programmer available as a mailing list?
- 105. What other newsgroups should I know about?
- section 2. Compile and link
- 201. What the heck is "DGROUP > 64K"?
- 202. How do I fix "automatic data segment exceeds 64K" or "stack
- plus data exceed 64K"?
- 203. Will Borland C code and Microsoft C code link together?
- 204. Why did my program bomb at run time with "floating point
- formats not linked"?
- 205. Why did my program bomb with "floating point not loaded"?
- 206. How can I change the stack size in Borland's C compilers?
- 207. What's the format of an .OBJ file?
- 208. What's the format of an .EXE header?
- 209. What's the difference between .COM and .EXE formats?
- section 3. Keyboard
- 301. How can I read a character without echoing it to the screen,
- and without waiting for the user to press the Enter key?
- 302. How can I find out whether a character has been typed, without
- waiting for one?
- 303. How can I disable Ctrl-C/Ctrl-Break and/or Ctrl-Alt-Del?
- 304. How can I disable the print screen function?
- 305. How can my program turn NumLock (CapsLock, ScrollLock) on/off?
- 306. How can I speed up the keyboard's auto-repeat?
- 307. What is the SysRq key for?
- 308. How can my program tell what kind of keyboard is on the system?
- 309. How can I tell if input, output, or stderr has been redirected?
- 310. How can I increase the size of the keyboard buffer?
-
-
- Contents--part 3 of 4
- =====================
- section 4. Disks and files
- 401. What drive was the PC booted from?
- 402. How can I boot from drive b:?
- 403. Which real and virtual disk drives are valid?
- 404. How can I make my single floppy drive both a: and b:?
- 405. Why won't my C program open a file with a path?
- 406. How can I redirect printer output to a file?
- 407. How can I redirect the output of a batch file?
- 408. How can my program open more files than DOS's limit of 20?
- 409. How can I read, create, change, or delete the volume label?
- 410. How can I get the disk serial number?
- 411. What's the format of .OBJ, .EXE., .COM files?
- 412. How can I flush the software disk cache?
- section 5. Serial ports (COM ports)
- 501. How do I set my machine up to use COM3 and COM4?
- 502. How do I find the I/O address of a COM port?
- 503. But aren't the COM ports always at I/O addresses 3F8, 2F8, 3E8,
- and 2E8?
- 504. How do I configure a COM port and use it to transmit data?
- section 6. Other hardware questions and problems
- 601. Which 80x86 CPU is running my program?
- 602. How can a C program send control codes to my printer?
- 603. How can I redirect printer output to a file?
- 604. Which video adapter is installed?
- 605. How do I switch to 43- or 50-line mode?
- 606. How can I find the Microsoft mouse position and button status?
- 607. How can I access a specific address in the PC's memory?
- 608. How can I read or write my PC's CMOS memory?
- 609. How can I access memory beyond 640K?
- 610. Where can I find a list of 80x86 opcodes?
- section 7. Other software questions and problems
- 701. How can a program reboot my PC?
- 702. How can I time events with finer resolution than the system
- clock's 55 ms (about 18 ticks a second)?
- 703. How can I find the error level of the previous program?
- 704. How can a program set DOS environment variables?
- 705. How can I change the switch character to - from /?
- 706. Why does my interrupt function behave strangely?
- 707. How can I write a TSR (terminate-stay-resident) utility?
- 708. How can I write a device driver?
- 709. What can I use to manage versions of software?
- 710. What's this "null pointer assignment" after my C program
- executes?
- 711. How can my program tell if it's running under Windows?
- 712. How do I copyright software that I write?
-
-
- Contents--part 4 of 4
- =====================
- section A. Downloading
- A01. What are Simtel, garbo, and wustl?
- A02. I have no ftp access. How can I get files from the archives?
- A03. Can I get archives on CD-ROM?
- A04. Where do I find program <mumble>?
- A05. How can I check Simtel or garbo before I post a request for a
- program?
- A06. How do I download and decode a program I found?
- A07. Where is UUDECODE?
- A08. Why do I get errors when extracting from a ZIP file I
- downloaded?
- section B. Vendors and products
- B01. How can I contact Borland?
- B02. How can I contact Microsoft?
- B03. What's the current version of UNZIP?
- B04. What's in Borland Pascal/Turbo Pascal 7.0?
- B05. What's in Microsoft Visual C++?
- B06. Where is Microsoft C 8.0?
- section C. More information
- C01. Are there any good on-line references for PC hardware
- components?
- C02. Are there any good on-line references for PC interrupts?
- C03. What and where is "Ralf Brown's interrupt list"?
- C04. Where can I find lex, yacc, and language grammars?
- C05. What's the best book to learn programming?
- C06. Where are FAQ lists archived?
- C07. Where can I get the latest copy of this FAQ list?
- C08. How do I use ftp?
-
-
- Acknowledgements
- ================
- Many articles posted in comp.os.msdos.programmer sparked ideas or
- provided information for the first version of this list. Though I am
- responsible for any errors, thanks are due to the following for posted
- articles or private email that I used in subsequent editions: Jamshid
- Afshar, Mark Aitchison, Sanjay Aiyagari, George Almasi, Aaron Auseth,
- Preston Bannister, Denis Beauregard, Mike Black, Jon Brinkmann, Glynn
- Brooks, Paul Brooks, Ralf Brown, Shaun Burnett, Raymond Chen, Alan Drew,
- Paul Ducklin, Gary Dueck, Roland Eriksson, Markus Fischer, George
- Forsman, Vincent Giovannone, B.Haible, Janos Haide, Klaus Hartnegg, Kris
- Heidenstrom, Tom Haapanen, Joel Hoffman, Ari Hovila, Joe Huffman,
- Michael Holin, Mike Iarrobino, Byrial Jensen, Rune Jorgensen, Ajay
- Kamdar, Everett Kaser, Jeff Kellam, Jen Kilmer, Reinhard Kirchner, Dave
- Kirsch, Samuel Ko, Benjamin Lee, Sidney Markowitz, Jim Marks, Dimitri
- Matzarakis, Fred McCall, Ken McKee, Tom Milner, Bill Moore, Duncan
- Murdoch, Steve Murphy, Mert Nickerson, David Nugent, John Oldenburg,
- David Pape, Keith Petersen, Karl Riedling, Arthur Rubin, Gerald
- Ruderman, Timo Salmi, Tapio Sand, John Schmid, Russell Schulz, Ajay
- Shah, Steve Summit, Tom Swingle, Anders Thulin, Curt Tilmes, Rick
- Watkins, Ya-Gui Wei, Joe Wells, Gregory Youngblood, khill@vax1.umkc.edu
-
- New contributors this issue: Ari Hovila
-
-
- Legalistic stuff
- ================
- This article is not in the public domain, but it may be redistributed so
- long as this notice, the acknowledgements, and the information on
- obtaining the latest copy of this list are retained and no fee is
- charged. The code fragments may be used freely; credit would be polite.
-
- Copyright (C) 1993 Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems. All rights reserved.
-
- THERE IS NO WARRANTY ON THE CODE. I have tested all the code included
- below, but your machine may not work the same as mine, and my testing
- may not be perfect. (Except where otherwise noted, I tested the code
- with both BC++ 2.0 and MSC 5.0.)
-
- The mention of particular books or programs must not be construed to
- reflect unfavorably on any that are not mentioned.
-
-
- (continued in part 2)
-
- --
- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems brown@Ncoast.ORG
-
- Can't find FAQ lists? ftp to 'rtfm.mit.edu' and look in /pub/usenet
- (or email me >>> with valid reply-to address <<< for instructions).
-