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- 19 Feb 1989
-
- CONV
- ----
-
- CONV is MSDOS TSR utility, to perform one of 4 tasks:
- 1. Display ASCII table (including extended codes >127).
- 2. Base conversion (between bases 2/8/10/16).
- 3. Simple calculator - 4 basic op. (+,-,*,/) in any of the above bases.
- 4. Scan code decoding - allows to detect scan code of any key, in keyboard.
-
- The utility will work on any hercules (monochrome) system or CGA system.
- The reason the system needs to be hercules, is because we use the NEXT page
- to save old screen before drawing our windows. This prevent from allocating
- more 4k memory in user space (as of resident part). It does not check for the
- exact mode CGA is in, so activating it in 40 col. will clip part of it (although
- it will exit correctly). The main reason is that I don't have one close, so I
- didn't bother too much about it. Any case that's make it a feature (...) and
- not a bug, and adding this test is relatively simple - you get the source!
-
- The utility is in two forms, one for XT type machines, and one for AT type
- machines, The only difference between the two is the last task, were the AT
- version uses the extended keyboard int 16 calls (>=10). Therefore using the
- XT version on AT system will work perfectly well (but not vice versa), but
- will be limited to old scan codes only.
-
- The utility is resident as mentioned above, and can be activated any time
- using the hot key, which is defined to be ALT-A at the moment.
-
- The hot key and positions of windows may be modified by patching the
- program at the following places using DEBUG, for those of you with no
- assembler available:
-
- offset 103/104 - word that holds the hot key scan code (currently ALT-A). Find
- your favorite hot key scan code (using the Scan Code detector) and use DEBUG
- to replace the old one.
-
- offset 105 - left coordinate of ASCII window (currently 3)
- offset 106 - top coordinate of ASCII window (currently 3)
-
- offset 107 - left coordinate of Base Conversion window (currently 20)
- offset 108 - top coordinate of Base Conversion window (currently 5)
-
- offset 109 - left coordinate of Calculator window (currently 35)
- offset 110 - top coordinate of Calculator window (currently 7)
-
- offset 111 - left coordinate of Scan Code window (currently 40)
- offset 112 - top coordinate of Scan Code window (currently 12)
-
- offset 113 - left coordinate of Main window (currently 25)
- offset 114 - top coordinate of Main window (currently 8)
-
- It is the user responsibility to modify those window position, in such a
- way that the bottom right corner is still inside the screen...
-
- In order to compile the program, I used Borland new TASM, but I dont think
- you should have any problem compiling it using MS MASM. I used the TASM in
- its default mode which is MASM compatible. In addition, I added two tiny batch
- files to do it - one is for the AT and the other for the XT version. Make sure
- you convert the result .EXE file into .COM using the EXE2BIN utility, and use
- the later one.
-
- And last, as usual, the regular bla bla:
- I will not be responsible for any result/problem/fire/explosion this program
- may cause. I am using it regularly for few month with no problem (on my
- hercules clone system), but who knows. You get the source, and you can do
- ANYTHING you want with it. I hope you will be fair enough to leave my
- name on it, and if you sell it, to give me my share... what the hack, I really
- enjoy listening to this channel, and this is my little contribution to it.
- Again do ANYTHING you want with it.
- If you think you did some major improvement to it, I would love to see it. If
- you find a bug on the other hand, I would like to know about it, and love to
- see a fix for it.
-
- Gershon Elber
- #918 university village
- Salt Lake City
- Utah 84108
- Email: gershon@cs.utah.edu