MODES
              Replacement for OS/2's MODE.COM for serial ports



                   Copyright (c) 2000 by Raymond L. Gwinn
                              26 Tanager Place
                        Beckley, West Virginia 25801
                            All Rights Reserved

                             November 10, 2000


                         InterNet: sio2k@gwinn.com
                            FAX: 1-304-255-7902
                          WEB http://www.gwinn.com
                             FTP ftp.gwinn.com


                               Documentation
YOU CANNOT USE THIS PROGRAM WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.  EVEN
THEN, YOU USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.  THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES OR SUPPORT.

The program MODE.COM (aka "the MODE command") that is supplied with OS/2
has some limitations with respect to serial ports.  For example, at the
date of this writing, the mode command supports only com1 to com9.  The
author's SIO drivers, sio and sio2k will support more than 9 serial ports. 
Over the years, I have received numerous requests for a MODE (like) program
that supports more than 9 serial ports.  Not being an easy undertaking, I
resisted writing the program for years.  MODES.EXE (the MODES command) is
an end to resistance.

The MODES command is not unique to the sio2k drivers.  The program should
work with any drivers remotely similar to com.sys.  However, some features,
such as locking the bit rate, are unique to the sio2k drivers and will not
work with other drivers.

I would like to make a few personal comments, or thoughts about the MODE
command.  I suspect the program/command may be a test by an advanced alien
civilization for intelligent life forms.  If not that, then it may be a
mind control experiment by the CIA.  That is to say, if you can understand
the command, then your mind may be one that should be controlled.

That being said, the syntax of the MODES command is intended to be
identical to the MODE command, as far as com ports are concerned.  Things
like MODES LPT1 will NOT work, but as to serial ports (ie MODE COM1) the
MODES command should be a direct replacement for the MODE command.

To access IBM's OS/2 documentation for the MODE command on WARP 4, go to an
OS/2 command prompt and type VIEW CMDREF.  If you insist on going the GUI
way, open (double click) the "Assistance Center" on the desktop, then open
the "Information" folder, then open the "Reference and Commands" folder,
and finally open the "OS/2 Warp Command Reference" document.  IN THIS
DOCUMENT, I WILL ONLY DOCUMENT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MODE AND MODES.

There are some features of the MODES command that are not currently being
documented because the drivers are not yet completely ready to implement
the commands.

The intended differences between MODE and MODES are:

1 - The displayed information is very similar, but not identical.  MODES
often provides more information than MODE.

2 - MODES DOES NOT VALIDATE THE BIT RATE, except with respect to minimum
and maximum.  So, if you type 56700 instead of 57600, you will NOT get an
error message, and you will get strange results.

3 - The bit rate can be preceded by "LOCK" or "UNLOCK", without the quote
marks.  If LOCK is specified without a following bit rate, then the bit
rate is locked at the current bit rate.  When the bit rate is locked,
application programs, are prevented from altering the bit rate.  The UNLOCK
option enables application programs to again set/reset the bit rate.  Some
examples are:

     modes com1:lock 115200        ;lock at 115200
     modes com1 unlock 57600       ;unlock and set bit rate to 57600
     modes com1 lock               ;lock at the currently set bit rate
     modes com1 unlock             ;obvious


4 - The next difference is an experiment, and I really need feedback to
sio2k@gwinn.com about success and problems this feature may cause.  THIS
FEATURE HAS NOT BEEN ADDRESSES IN VSIO2K YET, so the effects on DOS/Windows
sessions is unknown, and at this point is/are unpredictable.  Okay, what is
this experimental feature.  Well, MODES will allow you to swap COM ports. 
That is you can swap com4 with com1, or com10 with com6.  Note that
sio2k.sys does not keep track of the swapping, so there is no automatic
undo.  Of course, you can undo a swap by re-swapping the ports.  Multiple
ports can be swapped on a single MODES command line.  Some examples are:

     modes com1=com10              ;swap com1 with com10
     modes com10=com1              ;the same as the first example
     modes com1=com4 com7=com2     ;swap com1 with com4, also com2 and com7

I will address and expand this feature into DOS/Windows sessions in the
near future.

Have fun.