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INTRO
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1988-12-16
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** Programmer's Technical Reference for MSDOS and the IBM PC **
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ Shareware Version, 12/16/88 │
│ Please Register Your Copy │
└─────────────────────────────┘
Copyright (c) 1988 Dave Williams
I N T R O D U C T I O N
This book is a technical reference. It is NOT a tutorial. Hopefully, this
book is what you'll reach for when you want find out what Peter Norton or the
"official" references glossed over.
This manual is intended to replace the various (expensive) references needed to
program for the DOS environment, that stack of magazines threatening to take
over your work area, and those odd tables and charts you can never find when you
need them.
The various Microsoft and IBM publications and references don't always have the
same information. This has caused some consternation about the "undocumented"
features to be found in DOS. In general, if a call doesn't appear in the IBM
DOS Technical Reference it is considered "undocumented" although it may be in
common use.
Microsoft's offical policy toward DOS has been to put the burden of documenting
and supporting their product to their vendors. Microsoft will not answer any
questions concerning DOS directly since they don't officially support it. This
leaves what information IBM and other OEMs (DEC, Zenith, et al) have chosen to
publish, and the information obtained from programmers who've poked around
inside it.
Now that Microsoft is selling MSDOS 3.2 and 3.3 as Microsoft products they seem
to be dragging their feet over whether they will have to support the generic
version since it doesn't have an OEM name on it anymore. In view of their push
to OS/2 (OS/2! Just Say No!) further support of DOS seems unlikely.
The information here is valid for DOS 2.x and 3.x. Where there are differences
between the two versions there are notes in the text. No great effort was
expended on DOS 1.x or networking features.
As I write this there is still considerable furor over incompatibilities with
DOS 4.0. Since a Technical Reference for 4.0 isn't availible yet, I don't have
a whole lot of info on it.
When I started writing this book, it was originally for my own personal use.
Then I began expanding it with the idea of getting it published, since at that
time there was *nothing* in print like it. If I had managed to send it off to
the publishers early enough, I would have had it made. As it was I lost six
months having a nice steel rod put in my leg, after being run over by a car,
and half a dozen similar books were published by then, and nobody was
interested in mine. Six months is a long time in the PC world.
That's why I'm uploading this file as "user-supported." It gives me a chance
to recoup a few bucks for the year or so I've been working on this thing, and
it gives some advantages that a printed book can't - first, you can load it on
your hard disk and use Vern Buerg's LIST or SideKick to scan through text. You
can grab a peice of something and paste it into a document, etc. If you help
support the PC Programmer's Reference you will always have the latest version
availible; you can't "upgrade" books.
A project this size takes a LOT of time and effort. I've tried to verify as
much of the information I've received as I could, but there's just too much for
absolute certainty.
If you find any typos, incorrect information, or want to see something else,
let me know. If you have any more detailed information on something, PLEASE let
me know!
Dave Williams
D I S C L A I M E R
<sigh>
As is common these days, I have to make a "Notice of Disclaimer". I take no
responsibility for anything, and if anything you do with this book ruins you
for life or makes your dog bite you, or anything else, that's just tough.
I hope you find much use for this reference. It was a trip to write, too.
Dave Williams
(C) Copyright 1988
Please do not change and re-upload this file. Send any corrections to me and
I will incorporate any corrections/changes/enhancements immediately.
B I B L I O G R A P H Y
The information presented here was gathered from megabytes of files found on
BBS systems, conversations on a dozen different BBS systems, correspondence,
and every reference book I could get my hands on. On occaision, a number of
prestigious references didn't agree with each other. Where this has happened, I
have used the latest references. There is too much information here for me to
verify every fact personally. I have used my own judgement as to the
reliability of the sources.
References used in preparing this book:
IBM Technical Reference
Personal Computer
p/n 6322507 IBM Publications
IBM Technical Reference
Personal Computer - PCjr
p/n 1502293 IBM Publications
IBM Technical Reference
Options and Adapters - Enhanced Graphics Adapter
p/n 6280131 IBM Publications Aug 1984
IBM DOS Operations Manual Version 2.00
MS-DOS Programmer's Reference
by Microsoft
p/n 135555-001 Intel Corp. 1984
Lotus-Intel-Microsoft Expanded Memory Specification 4.0
Intel Corp. 1987
Microsoft Extended Memory Specification v2.00
Microsoft Corporation, 1988
AST EEMS Technical Reference Manual
AST Corporation, 1987
X3.4-1977: American National Standard Code for Information Interchange
by American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
New York, NY 1977
**********************
Microcomputer Products - 1987 Data Book
NEC Electronics, Inc.
p/n 500105 Aug 1987
FastCard IV User Manual
Peripheral Marketing Inc
p/n 0527 Jan 1987
Hercules Graphics Card User's Manual
******************
Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC
Peter Norton
Microsoft Press 1985
Inside the IBM PC
Peter Norton
Exploring the IBM PCjr
Peter Norton
Microsoft Press 1984
Advanced MSDOS
Ray Duncan
Microsoft Press 1986
The IBM Personal Computer from the Inside Out
Murray Sargent III and Richard L. Shoemaker
Addison-Wesley 1984
DOS:The Complete Reference
Kris Jamsa
Osborne/McGraw-Hill 1987
Mapping the IBM PC
Russ Davies/Compute! Magazine
Compute! Books 1986
Tricks of the MS-DOS Masters
Waite Group
Supercharging MS-DOS
Van Volverton
Microsoft Press 1986
DOS Power Tools
Paul Somerson
Bantam Books 1988
Running MS-DOS
Van Wolverton
Microsoft Press
Microcomputer Interfacing
Bruce A. Artwick
Prentice Hall 1980
The 8080a Bugbook
Tony-Larsen-Titus
Howard W. Sams 1977
S-286 User Manual, version 2
Link Computer, 1988
MPC Operations Guide, Manual #1023
Columbia Data Products, Inc.
CDP 1983
*********************
Assembly Language Subroutines for MSDOS Computers
Leo J. Scanlon
TAB Books 1986
The Serious Assembler
Charles A. Crayne and Dian Gerard
Baen Books 1985
Assembly Language Programming for the IBM Personal Computer
David J. Bradley
Prentice-Hall 1984
The 8086 Book
Russell Rector and George Alexy
Osborne/McGraw-Hill 1980
Compute!'s Guide to Assembly Language Programming on the IBM PC
Microsoft Macro Assembler 4.0, 5.1 documentation
Microsoft C 4.0 documentation
***************************
Dr. Dobb's Journal
PC Magazine
PC Resource
PC Tech Journal
Computer Language
Programmer's Journal
Byte Magazine
****************************
various computer bulletin board systems, including
Byte Information Exchange (BIX)
Compuserve IBM SIG
GEnie IBM RT
GT Net international network
FIDO Net international network
PCanada BBS system (Toronto, Canada)
Pecan Pi RBBS, (404) 454-8756 (Atlanta, Georgia)
Night Modulator, (408) 728-5598 (San Jose, California)
**********************************
various text files downloaded from BBS systems - INTERRUP.ARC, BIOSDOS.ZOO,
DOSINFO.ARC, DOSERROR.DOC, DOSTIPS.TXT, etc.
and thanks to all the people who have been good enough to furnish information
Copyrights and trademarks:
(Microsoft Corp.)
Microsoft, MS, MS DOS, OS/2, Xenix, Windows, Windows/286, Windows/386,
Microsoft Networks, LIM EMS, XMA
(IBM Corp.)
IBM, PC, PCjr, PC/XT, PC/AT, XT/286, PS/2, TopView, DOS, PC-DOS, Micro Channel
3270 PC, RT PC, Token Ring
(Compaq Computer Corp.)
Compaq, Deskpro
(Tandy Corp.)
Tandy
(Quarterdeck Office Systems)
DesQview
(Sunny Hill Software)
TaskView
(Fox Research, Inc.)
10-Net
(Mouse Systems Corp.)
Mouse Systems
(Allied Telephone and Telegraph)
UNIX, AT&T
(Softlogic)
DoubleDOS
(Intel Corp.)
Intel, iAPX286, iAPX386, LIM EMS, Communicating Applications Standard
(Borland)
Borland, Turbo C, Turbo Pascal, Turbo Lightning
(Novell Corp.)
Novell, NetWare
(Cordata Computer)
Corona, Cordata
(Hayes)
Smartmodem
(SEAware, Inc)
ARC
(Logitech, Inc)
Logitech, Logimouse
Various other names are trademarks of their respective companies