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NNANSI.SYS -- Enhanced MS-DOS ANSI Console Driver For EGA/VGA Displays Documentation for version 8/90. Note: MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation, and PC/XT, PC/AT, and PS/2 are trademarks of IBM Corporation. *********INTRODUCTION NNANSI.SYS (version 8/90) is an improved version of NANSI.SYS (version 2.2), by Daniel Kegel, which is in turn such an improvement over ANSI.SYS that *no one* should be without one of these. If you are using ANSI.SYS, be aware that either of these drivers will offer greatly improved performance and functionality over your current driver. Current users of NANSI.SYS with EGA or VGA displays (and other enhanced ANSI.SYS drivers) will notice still greater performance and functionality in NNANSI.SYS. Even if you don't use an ANSI.SYS driver, you will the performance benefits. (Note that there will be no performance benefits for programs that write directly to the display). A short list of improvements of NANSI.SYS (version 3.0) over ANSI.SYS: 1. Intrinsic 43 or 50 line support. 2. Some additional text mode escape sequences: Insert Lines, Delete Lines, Insert Characters, Delete Characters. 3. Greater to *much* greater performance. 4. Supports higher resolutions, both text and graphic modes. 5. Graphic mode cursor A short list of improvements of NNANSI.SYS (version 8/90) over NANSI.SYS: 1. Additional escape sequences: erase to start/end of display, insert/delete lines in graphic modes, added Set Graphic Rendition codes (and working reverse video). 2. Graphic cursor support is better, and can be disabled. 3. Intrinsic support for both 43 and 50 line modes on a VGA. 4. Faster text mode performance; *much* faster scrolling (when in "fast mode"). 5. Much faster performance in 640x350 (or greater) 16 color graphic modes. Every ANSI control sequence (except insert/delete characters and blink) work in these modes as well. 6. Readily configured for enhanced graphic and text modes of various display cards. Support for several popular cards are provided. 7. Blink in 16 color graphics modes will exclusive-OR characters. On the other hand, NANSI works with CGA, MDA, or Hercules displays, and is smaller. **********************LICENSE REQUIREMENTS Daniel Kegel is the author of NANSI.SYS, of which this is a derived work. I, Tom Almy, think enough of his efforts and programming skills that I used NANSI.SYS as a base for NNANSI.SYS (version 2.2 came with sources and free distribution for personal or educational use, but prohibits commercial use). I have an agreement with Mr. Kegel to license NNANSI.SYS in accordance with his newest NANSI.SYS license arrangement: "If you use this program for education or at home, you are encouraged to send a US$10 donation to the author. If you use it for business purposes, you are required to purchase a right-to-use license by sending US$10 to the author." Send contributions/user fees to: Daniel Kegel 221 Fairview Ave. South Pasadena, CA 91030 You can also reach him at his internet address: dank@moc.jpl.nasa.gov Everyone wins with this arrangement! * Commercial users can now legally use NNANSI.SYS * Personal users can show their gratitude. * Daniel Kegel can make a little money for his efforts. * I won't feel guilty for "ripping off" his work. I place no restrictions on my modifications to NANSI.SYS. I neither request nor will I accept any contributions for my work on this program. I made these modifications as part of an effort to understand the workings of DOS device drivers and the EGA/VGA display. On the other hand, I do like to hear from users, satisfied or (even) not satisfied. Please, if you have problems, check the PROBLEMS section of this document before contacting me. My address is: toma@tekgvs.labs.tek.com (Internet) or Tom Almy 17830 SW Shasta Trail Tualatin, OR 97062 if you must use the postal service. Enclose a stamped, self- addressed envelope if you desire a reply. *********DISTRIBUTED FILES The distribution has the following files: nnansi.sys - Driver, with compilation options set as shown - in the source file nnansi_d.asm gcon.bat - turns graphic cursor on gcoff.bat - turns graphic cursor off fast.bat - turns fast mode on slow.bat - turns fast mode off 25.bat - set 80x25 text mode 43.bat - set 80x43 text mode 50.bat - set 80x50 text mode (VGA only) nnansi.doc - this file makefile - for Don Kneller's NDMAKE nnansi_d.asm - definitions **** READ THIS **** nnansi.asm - device driver guts nnansi_p.asm - ANSI parameter grabber nnansi_f.asm - ANSI function handlers nnansi_i.asm - device driver init routine (must link last) *********INSTALLATION NNANSI.SYS installs just like ANSI.SYS (or NANSI.SYS), it is a device driver that you specify in your CONFIG.SYS file: DEVICE=NNANSI.SYS If you are using code pages, place this command before the DEVICE=DISPLAY.SYS command, otherwise code pages will not work. While the supplied compiled driver is suitable for most installations, you can get better results by customizing the driver for your display card. To do this you will need an assembler, such as Borland Turbo Assembler, a text editor, and (optionally) Don Kneller's NDMAKE program. All options are specified in the file NNANSI_D.ASM. Edit that file and make changes as appropriate. These descriptions assume the initial default settings: VGA (TRUE) If you have an EGA display, set this to FALSE. You might also want to set this to FALSE if you have a VGA and are used to the ESC [=43h sequence supplying 50 line mode. EGA (TRUE) If you have a VGA, set this to FALSE. VEGA, PARADISE, STBVGA... (all FALSE) Set only one of these TRUE to match your enhanced EGA/VGA display card. If you have a card not on the list and experience problems with either blotches in enhanced text mode or poor performance (unsettable background colors is a clue) in graphics modes CONTACT THE AUTHOR. cheap_pc (TRUE) Set to FALSE for "PC/AT" and "PS/2" class machines which have 80186 or greater processors. key_redef (FALSE) Set to TRUE if you use key redefinition. There are Trojan Horse programs that take advantage of this feature, and most people don't use it anyway, so the default is FALSE. init_buffer_size (256) Enlarge if you use key redefinition and don't have enough room. quick_char (TRUE) Faster graphics display in 16 color modes, at cost of much extra code since this involves added display routines. Must be TRUE if non-BLACK graphic background colors are desired. fast29 (TRUE) Makes int29 display calls (used by DOS) 15% faster at a cost of 100 bytes. bios_write_tty (TRUE) The write tty BIOS call is taken over. It will now perform faster and understand ANSI escape sequences. This could confuse some programs. In that case, set this option to FALSE. gbackground (TRUE) Enables setting of non-black background color in 16 color graphic modes (except 640x200). If set to TRUE, quick_char must also be set to TRUE. If this feature is not desired, it is possible (depending on the system) to get greater performance by defining both gbackground and quick_char FALSE. This will also save quite a bit of code. Experiment and see for yourself. initgc (TRUE) Graphic mode cursor is initially on. Not a big deal since you can turn it on/off with a control sequence. initfast (TRUE) Fast scroll mode is initially on. This also means that multiple page support is initially off. Not a big deal since you can turn it on/off with a control sequence, and there are other work-arounds as well. You can then either use the supplied makefile to generate a new nnansi.sys or assemble manually as shown (Borland tools illustrated): tasm /m5 nnansi (Use /m5 for version 2.0 or later) tasm /m5 nnansi_f tasm /m5 nnansi_p tasm /m5 nnansi_i tlink nnansi+nnansi_f+nnansi_p+nnansi_i,nnansi.sys/m/t With the Microsoft assembler, you will need to use the exe2bin program to convert the linker generated exe file into a binary image file, which you then have to rename to NNANSI.SYS. **************HOW MUCH PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT IS THERE? I have performed considerable testing on a 25Mhz 80386 machine with a Video 7 (Headland) Fastwrite VGA display controller (and its BIOS), under both DOS 3.3 and 4.0. Your results will probably vary, and BIOS performance without NNANSI.SYS will also improve if the EGA/VGA BIOS is copied to RAM as supported by some vendors and also posible with QEMM or 386/MAX on 80386 based systems. When using ANSI.SYS rather than no driver at all, there is roughly a 2.3x degradation in performance if no scrolling occurs. Scrolling performance improves 44% when DOS 4.0 ANSI driver is used, but remains unchanged with the DOS 3.3 driver. Compared to no driver, NANSI.SYS (3.0) is 3x to 3.5x faster when no scrolling occurs, and is roughly 45x faster when going through DOS in RAW mode. It is roughly 2x faster scrolling. Compared to the no driver or other ANSI drivers, NNANSI.SYS is 4x faster in BIOS TTY write calls. Compared to NANSI.SYS it is 2x faster in INT29 calls, 73% faster in DOS calls, but there is no speedup in RAW mode. When fast mode is used, scrolling is 15x to 25x faster. This means that text mode programs that take advantage of RAW mode and buffering can display 100 times faster with NNANSI (and without scrolling, NANSI) over ANSI.SYS. It works out to about 420,000 characters per second with my fast machine. NNANSI.SYS also has speedups for 16 color graphic modes. With the graphic cursor turned on, the TTY BIOS call is about 10% slower than the standard BIOS call (which doesn't display a cursor), but other output calls are 2.5x to 3.5x faster than that of NANSI.SYS. Turning the graphics cursor off roughly doubles the writing speed of all modes but RAW. **************FAST MODE To get maximum speed, NNANSI has what I call Fast Mode. In text mode, there is more display memory than there are character on the display. Normally, the BIOS supports display "pages" that you can switch among. Changing the display page changes the region of the display memory that is sent to the display. Fast Mode uses the same technique (changing the starting location of the viewable memory region) to scroll the display upwards. Programs that make use of multiple display pages and scroll the display require that fast mode be turned off. Many debugging programs do this, to maintain separate debugging and application displays. Some of the programs will still work in fast mode if they have a "swap screens" option ("-ds" for Turbo Debugger, for instance). A number of programs that directly access the display don't work if starting address has changed. These programs may not work properly in fast mode (or in display pages other than the first). NNANSI.SYS tries its best to work with these programs by resetting the display start location if any program does the get display mode or scroll/clear display BIOS calls. These calls are typically done by offending applications when they start. As long as the display never scrolls under NNANSI.SYS control everything will work fine. A typical problem occurs in potentially offending programs that have DOS or "shell escape" commands. If the DOS sub-shell (invocation of COMMAND.COM) causes the display to scroll, then upon exiting the sub-shell the display will be ruined. The solution to this problem (other than leaving fast mode) is to clear the screen just before exiting the sub-shell. Some offending programs can be "fixed" by invoking them from a batch file (or alias if you use MKS Toolkit, 4DOS, ANARKEY...) which first clears the screen. Or you can use a batch file which turns off fast mode, then turn fast mode back on again after program execution. Example: echo ^[[=98l offendingpgm %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 echo ^[[=98h Where "^[" is the escape (code 27) character. Batch programs have been provided to enable and disable fast mode. ******************WRITING PROGRAMS FOR BEST PERFORMANCE To get best performance in programs you write, you must put the display in RAW mode, and buffer output. In assembler, you can set raw mode with the following sequence (adapt this for other languages): mov ax,4400h ; get device status mov bx, 1 ; of device 1 (standard output) int 21h xor dh, dh ; clear upper byte mov saved_state, dx ; save it for later mov ax, 4401h ; set new status or dl, 20h ; with raw bit set int 21h Reset raw mode before terminating the application: mov ax, 4401h ; set status to original values mov bx, 1 mov dx, saved_state int 21h There is a fixed amount of overhead (and it is high) for each DOS call. Therefore you should buffer up write requests into a single call. With the C language, you can use the setvbuf() call to set a large buffer size. Even if you don't follow this advice, you will get a major performance improvement over ANSI.SYS (or no device driver at all). Programs using RAW mode and buffering easily beat the performance of the supposedly high speed console drivers supplied in Turbo C and Microsoft C. And by using ANSI control sequences your programs can be made portable to other systems! *****************TYPICAL PROBLEMS SYSTEM CRASHES UPON BOOTING, OR DISPLAY BADLY CORRUPTED EVEN IN STANDARD 80x25 TEXT MODE. You have compiled NNANSI.SYS with cheap_pc set to FALSE on an 8088 based system, or you are trying to use NNANSI.SYS on a CGA, MDA, or Hercules Graphics equipped system (it will never work in this case). ON A VGA, SETTING 43 LINE MODE GIVES 43 LINES, WHEN IT GAVE 50 WITH AN OLDER VERSION OF NNANSI.SYS OR WITH NANSI.SYS This is correct. There is now a new setting for 50 line mode. If you require that 43 line mode give 50 lines, recompile the system with VGA set to FALSE. ON A VGA, SETTING 50 LINE MODE CAUSES VERY STRANGE BEHAVIOR Two possibilities. Your display adapter is really an EGA, or you have compiled NNANSI.SYS with VGA set to FALSE. In the latter case, you can get 50 line mode by setting 43 line mode, while in the former case you can't get 50 line mode at all. ON A VGA, AFTER LEAVING 43/50 LINE MODE THE CURSOR IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CHARACTER BLOCK Recompile the driver with EGA set to FALSE. ON AN EGA, THE CURSOR DISAPPEARS IN 43 LINE MODE WHEN RUNNING SOME APPLICATIONS There is nothing you can do, as this is caused by an error in the design of the EGA BIOS. IN 43/50 LINE MODE, THE DOS CLS COMMAND ONLY CLEARS THE FIRST 25 LINES OF THE DISPLAY I bet you are running DOS 4.0! The COMMAND.COM program in this version does not recognize NNANSI.SYS and clears the screen itself. Unfortunately it assumes that you are in 25 line mode. There are four fixes: 1) Patch COMMAND.COM (good luck), 2) write a batch file program which echoes the ANSI clearscreen sequence to the display, 3) Switch to DOS 3.3, 4) Get a COMMAND.COM replacement. I recommend the (share-ware) 4DOS from JP Software. DISPLAY SHOWS UGLY BLOCKS AT THE START AND END OF EACH LINE IN EXTENDED (GREATER THAN 80X25) TEXT MODES Your display controller sets the display mode byte in the BIOS to some value other than "3". You can either set the byte (at location 40:49h) back to 3 after setting the display mode, or configure NNANSI.SYS to know about these special modes. This problem is typical for Paradise cards, and their clones. There may already be a proper configuration for your display in NNANSI_D.ASM. DISPLAY IS NOTICEABLY SLOWER WRITING OR CANNOT SWITCH BACKGROUND COLORS IN EXTENDED (GREATER THAN 640x480, OR 640x350 EGA) GRAPHIC MODES You will need to configure NNANSI.SYS for your display card. Look for a proper configuration in NNANSI_D.ASM. DISPLAY GOES BLANK WHEN STARTING AN APPLICATION. DISPLAY SHIFTED PARTLY OFF SCREEN WHEN STARTING AN APPLICATION. DISPLAY DISAPPEARS DURING EXECUTION OF A APPLICATION. First try clearing the screen before execution. If that doesn't work, leave fast mode (see preceding section on FAST MODE). FUNNY BLOTCHES OCCASIONALLY APPEAR AT VARIOUS POINTS IN A GRAPHIC APPLICATION This is the graphics cursor. You can disable it either by reconfiguring the driver, or by sending the control sequence to disable the graphics cursor. A batch file has been provided for this purpose. TEXT DISPLAY IS MESSED UP, POSSIBLY CHANGING COLORS IN UNUSUAL PLACES. This has been observed with programs using the BIOS for writing to the display, and not expecting the ANSI translation (or the conversion of the TAB character into spaces instead of a special graphic). The solution is to compile NNANSI.SYS with bios_write_tty set to FALSE. *****************NNANSI COMMAND SEQUENCES Command sequences start with the escape character (code 27, referred to in this section as ESC). NNANSI buffers up the sequence until it has a command to execute. If the sequence is not a valid command, the entire sequence is passed to the display. All command sequences have the following format: ESC [ param1; param2; ...; paramN cmdchar where ESC is the escape character [ is the left bracket character. param are ascii decimal numbers or quoted strings. cmdchar is the command character No spaces are allowed within the command. Omitted parameters default to "1", with the exception of the ED (erase in display) command. For example, both ESC[1;1H and ESC[H send the cursor to the home position (1,1), which is the upper left. Quoted strings may use either single or double quote characters as delimiters. Each character inside the quoted string is converted to a numeric parameter. Quoted strings are only useful for the questionable Keyboard Key Reassignment command. CURSOR POSITIONING COMMANDS NAME DESCRIPTION COMMAND CUP cursor position ESC[y;xH HVP cursor position ESC[y;xf Either of these set the cursor position. CUP should be used since HVP has other connotations not implemented in NNANSI.SYS (or ANSI.SYS). The origin (in the upper left corner) is x=1, y=1. CUU cursor up ESC[nA CUD cursor down ESC[nB n = # of lines to move. You cannot move beyond the edge of the display. CUF cursor forward ESC[nC CUB cursor backward ESC[nD n = # of columns to move. You cannot move beyond the edge of the display. DSR Device Status Report ESC[6n Find out cursor position. The driver responds with a cursor position report (CPR) of the form "ESC[y;xR" followed by a carriage return, as if typed at the keyboard. SCP Save Cursor Position ESC[s RCP Restore Cursor Position ESC[u Cannot be nested. EDITING COMMANDS NAME DESCRIPTION COMMAND ED Erase in Display ESC[nJ n=0 or missing: Erase to end of screen (not in ANSI.SYS) n=1: erase to start of screen (not in ANSI.SYS) n=2: erase entire screen, and home cursor Note: there is a bug in ANSI.SYS that performs function 2 regardless of the value of n. This bug is not repeated in NNANSI.SYS because of the extra functionality provided. EL Erase in Line ESC[K Erases from cursor to end of line IL Insert Lines ESC[nL Inserts n blank lines at the line containing the cursor. While the cursor line moves down, the cursor position is unchanged. Not in ANSI.SYS. DL Delete Lines ESC[nM Deletes n lines, starting at the line containing the cursor. The cursor is not moved. Not in ANSI.SYS ICH Insert Characters ESC[n@ Inserts n blank characters at cursor position. The cursor does not move. Not in ANSI.SYS. Does not work in graphic modes. DCH Delete Characters ESC[nP Deletes n characters at the cursor. The cursor does not move. Not in ANSI.SYS. Does not work in graphic modes. SET GRAPHIC RENDITION COMMAND NAME DESCRIPTION COMMAND SGR Set Graphics Rendition ESC[n;n;...nm The Set Graphics Rendition command is used to select foreground and background colors or attributes. When you use multiple parameters, they are executed in sequence, and the effects are cumulative. You can set all colors and attributes in any text mode. In 16 color graphic modes with at least 350 vertical pixels you can set all colors and attributes except for blink. "Blink" becomes exclusive-OR character mode (very useful!). You can set foreground colors, blink, and bold, only, in other 16 color modes. Setting colors does not work correctly for other color modes -- make sure display is in the normal white on black mode before changing to these modes. Code Value 0 All attributes off (normal white on black) 1 Bold 2 Dim (not Bold) 4 Underscore (emulated via blue foreground) 5 Blink (or EXOR -- see above) 7 Reverse Video (improved implementation over ANSI) 8 Invisible (improved operation) 22 Cancel Bold 24 Cancel Underline (white foreground) 25 Cancel Blink 27 Normal, un-reversed video 30-37 foreground black/red/green/yellow/blue/magenta/cyan/white 40-47 background black/red/green/yellow/blue/magenta/cyan/white Codes 2, 22, 24, 25, and 27 are not in ANSI.SYS. SET DISPLAY MODE COMMAND NAME DESCRIPTION COMMAND SM Set Mode ESC[=nh The implementation allows using the RM command to do these actions, and the "=" character is optional. But cheating in this way is not a good idea. The BIOS supports many video modes. The code given for the AL register to the BIOS set mode command is used as the parameter to this set mode command. That means that extended modes that are settable in this manner can use this command. Display cards that use other techniques to change display mode are left as an exercise to the user, but if you can get the card into an extended mode, NNANSI can used it (possibly with a configuration change, though). In the graphic modes, the cursor can be simulated with a blob (the character produced with character code 22). Mode Code Value 0,1 text 40x25 16 color 2,3 text 80x25 16 color 4,5 graphics 320x200 4 color 6 graphics 640x200 Black & White 7 [see next section] 13 graphics 320x200 16 color, VGA only 14 graphics 640x200 16 color, VGA only 16 graphics 640x350 16 color, VGA only 17 graphics 640x480 Black & White, VGA only 18 graphics 640x480 16 color, VGA only 19 graphics 300x200 256 color, VGA only 43 43 line mode for mode 2 or 3 (Not in ANSI.SYS) 50 50 line mode for mode 2 or 3 (VGA only, not in ANSI.SYS) 98 [see next section] 99 [see next section] n When not in above list, sets mode n. (Not in ANSI.SYS) The modes marked as VGA only are not supported by ANSI.SYS that comes with version 3.3 MS-DOS or earlier. The 43 line and 50 line support reprograms the display to use smaller characters. Set mode 3 first, before using these modes. Set any other mode to leave 43/50 line mode. Unlike earlier versions of NNANSI.SYS, and NANSI.SYS, setting 43 line mode on a VGA will give 43 (not 50) lines. You must use the explicit 50 line mode command to get 50 lines on a VGA. If you would rather have compatibility with these other drivers, recompile the driver with VGA set to FALSE. SET DISPLAY ATTRIBUTES NAME DESCRIPTION COMMAND SM Set Mode ESC[?nh RM Reset Mode ESC[?nl Valid attributes that can be set and reset: 7 Cursor Wrap When false, cursor sticks at end of line, rather than wrapping 98 Fast Scroll When true (fast mode) the starting display location is changed for fast scrolling, which can cause problems for some programs. When false, the starting location does not change and the multi-page support is enabled. 99 Graphic cursor When true the cursor is displayed in graphic modes. Batch files are supplied to change attributes 98 and 99. KEYBOARD REASSIGNMENT COMMAND This command is absent by default. You must recompile to enable this command. NAME DESCRIPTION COMMAND IBMKKR Keyboard Key Reassign ESC[param;param;...;param p If no parameters are given, all keys are reset. This is not true for ANSI.SYS. The first parameter is the key to reassign. IBM function keys take the first two parameters, where the first parameter is 0. The remaining parameters are the keystrokes to substitute. F11 and F12 are not supported. Normally a string is used rather than numeric arguments. ******************************THE END****************************