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OS/2 Shareware BBS: 33 VDrivers
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33-VDrivers.zip
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8514s2.zip
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8514smal.txt
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1994-02-26
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Title: OS/2 2.1GA small font 8514/a display driver RELEASE 2.
Release date: 26 Feb 1994
Package source: Stuart G. Robertson
Document revision date: 26 Feb 1994
CONTENTS:
Introduction
History of this driver
File list
Acknowledgements
Contacting the author
Limitations
Disclaimer
Installation
Uninstalling
Configuring Win-OS2 to use small fonts
Personal defence
Icons
Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
This display driver makes use of the fact that the 8514/a drivers that
ship with OS/2 2.1GA contains small fonts (the same size as those used
by the 1024x768 small font drivers for Windows - well almost).
The differences between this driver and the standard driver are:
- The fonts are small (that should be more than a little obvious...)
System fonts are now really small. Fantastic for viewing
help, text files and other stuff. 8.Helv is *really* tiny.
- Settings notebooks are now quite nice to look at (not so big and
ugly anymore).
**NEW TO RELEASE 2**:
- Icons have shrunk to 32x32 and are *real* small (they don't waste
half as much screen space as previously!
- Title bars have shrunk as well. They are now the same size as
standard VGA title-bars (in terms of pixel height, not actual
screen height), so they're nice an' small as well.
Yep, that's the entire feature list... :) Don't laugh.
HISTORY OF THIS DRIVER
Release 1 (Uploaded on 17 Nov 1993):
- Fonts were small.
- Some problems with message box icons (they were a little messed up),
and the seamless Win-OS/2 mouse pointer had a spot.
- Icons were still 40x40, and title-bars refused to shrink.
Release 2 (Uploaded on 26 Feb 1994) (Sorry it took so long...):
- Fixed the problems with the messed up message box icons, and the
damaged Win-OS/2 mouse pointer.
- Icons are now 32x32, and title bars have shrunk as well.
FILE LIST
After unzipping the zipfile, you should have the following 12 files:
README.1ST, {start here}
8514SMAL.TXT, {this document}
VGANOTES.TXT, {see note below}
8514_32.DLL, {*the* DLL}
COURE.FON, {
SERIFE.FON, {
SMALLE.FON, {
SSERIFE.FON, { Various small fonts
SYMBOLE.FON, { for use with Win-OS/2
VGAFIX.FON, {
VGAOEM.FON, and {
VGASYS.FON. {
Someone told me I didn't have to distribute the fonts with the driver, since they
are available on the OS/2 distribution disks. I know that, silly! I find it a pain
to have to dig out my OS/2 disks and then sit expanding files. So I thought
I'd spare somebody else the trouble as well, and include them with the driver.
***********
* NOTE: *
***********
8514SMAL.TXT (this file), should be read entirely before attempting to install the driver.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It must be mentioned that this driver is not the result of my own intelligence! Assistance
has been received from numerous sources, and credit must be given for their input.
Firstly, the attached VGANOTES.TXT is a document detailing the procedure used to 'create'
the DLL, and was written by Daniel J Neades (he has 'created' a VGA 1024x768 small fonts
driver which is available on Hobbes (possibly some other FTP sites as well). Much thanks is
due to Daniel, since it was his advice (darned good advice as well) that allowed this driver to be
'made'. Here it is then, "Thanks, Daniel. That was real grand work!"
Daniel's work allowed me to get going on the 1st release of this driver. There were, however,
some problems (see History of this Driver above). The second major input came from
Kai Uwe Rommel, who e-mailed me shortly after I made the first driver available. His assistance
has proved invaluable and the changes he recommended not only fixed the bugs (features?) of
the 1st release driver, but also resulted in the icons shrinking to 32x32 (title bars shrunk as well).
I am very grateful for your assistance, Kai. Thanks.
To all the others who mailed me, thanks for your interest. Hope this driver is of use.
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
Firstly, I am not the author of the display driver, just a bored fiddler who
modified IBM's DLL a bit. Actually, I wasn't really bored; I was cheesed off
by IBM's waste of my new ATI video card.
If you have any problems (or if you have something nice to say?), I can be
contacted at my e-mail address:
007RSG3@WITSVMA.WITS.AC.ZA
If I don't answer your mail, I'm probably just in a bad mood. If you wait a
while, you *should* get some sort of a reply. :)
Also, my snail-mail address is:
Stuart Robertson
7 Inyanga
Roxy Drive
Waterval Park
2195
Johannesburg
South Africa.
Yup. It's true. I come from *there*.
LIMITATIONS
This driver is only suitable for use with video-cards which are fully 8514/a
compatible. It has been tested on an ATI Graphics Ultra (1MB) video adapter.
Release 1 of the driver was tested on other ATI cards as well, and was found
to be stable. I used the first release driver for more than 2 months without
noticing any problems. Some changes have been made to the DLL (again), but
these mostly fixed bugs in the last release of the driver, so there should not
be any problems with stability. I have now been using the "new" (i.e. version 2)
for about 3 months and have not encountered *any* problems. Seems IBM wrote a
good, stable driver.
This driver is basically 100% (well perhaps 99.9%) IBM stuff.
DISCLAIMER
This driver is the result of frustration (and an abhorrence for large fonts), and
does not come with a guarantee (sad, hey?).
*A drum roll starts, and a deep, monotonic voice drones*:
I accept no responsibility or liability for any loss or damage arising from or as
a result of the use of this driver, or from following the installation instructions
contained herein.
If anyone at IBM is upset that I've uploaded modified OS/2 code, they should
contact me and let me know. I'll get the driver removed real pronto.
*Drum roll stops, and Jim Morrison comes on singing LA Women*
*Someone interrupts and asks*:
Why doesn't IBM supply small resource 8514/a drivers with the standard
distribution?
Someone shrugs and mumbles something about "Hopefully it'll be in 2.2?"
Someone else asks what a 2.2 is?
Shame.
INSTALLATION
This is where the fun begins. Those of you who don't like fiddling with OS/2's
DLL's directly should put this document down and enjoy their large fonts. Those
of you with weak hearts should perhaps take a pill or something before proceeding.
For those of you who 'installed' release 1 of this driver, the procedure is unchanged.
NOTE: This driver is *only* for OS/2 2.1GA. No, not the March Beta. Did I say the
March beta. I'm sure I didn't say the March beta. Hmm.
Should work with the March beta, but it hasn't been tested with the beta, so
I can't/don't/couldn't be bothered to guarantee it working. Try it if you
really must....
OK, let's get on with it.
1) Open an OS/2 Window and change into the root directory of your OS/2 drive
(where your CONFIG.SYS file lives).
2) Type:
COPY CONFIG.SYS CONFIG.BAK <Enter>
3) Type:
CD X:\OS2\DLL <Enter>
(X: is the drive where you installed OS2)
4) Type:
COPY 8514_32.DLL 8514_32.HUGEDLL <Enter>
5) Type:
START E CONFIG.SYS <Enter>
6) The OS/2 System Editor will load with your CONFIG.SYS file ready to
be edited.
7) Insert the following line immediately after the line "IFS=D:\OS2\.....":
CALL=X:\OS2\CMD.EXE
where X: is the drive where you installed OS/2.
The first two lines of your CONFIG.SYS file should now read as follows:
IFS=D:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE...
CALL=D:\OS2\CMD.EXE
.
.
.
assuming you installed OS/2 on your D: drive.
8) Save the CONFIG.SYS file, and close the editor.
That's the end of the first part. Now, before you shut-down, print out this part
of the installation procedure (or at least write it down). The line
"CALL=D:\OS2\CMD.EXE" causes the system to boot up without Presentation
Manager (initially, anyway). So, when you restart your system, you will find
that the system boots up and then gives you an OS/2 Full-Screen session.
This is *good*. If you get PM immediately, you've done something wrong.
NOTE: This is a fully functional OS/2 session, i.e. everything works (like path, etc.)
Now, let's carry on.
9) Once you have printed this part of the procedure, shut-down and then
restart your system. You should get the famed OS/2 full-screen.
10) Copy the newly unzipped DLL into your OS2/DLL directory. For example,
if you had unzipped the files into C:\ZIPFILES, and your OS2 directory is
D:\OS2\DLL, you would type:
COPY C:\ZIPFILES\8514_32.DLL D:\OS2\DLL <Enter>
This has just replaced the existing large font DLL with the small font
version. Be sure you didn't skip step 4.
11) Type:
EXIT <Enter>
This exits the lone little OS/2 session, and loads Presentation Manager.
If all has gone well, you should now have PM with small fonts.
12) If you are happy with the way things are, then fine. You can then remove
the line "CALL=D:\OS2\CMD.EXE" from your CONFIG.SYS file. This will
stop you getting an initial full-screen session every time you boot up.
13) When you are totally sure that everything is functioning correctly (like after
a month or two, delete 8514_32.HUGEDLL.
UNINSTALLING
If something miserable has happened, and your screen is corrupted, or something
equally nasty, shut-down (press Ctrl+Alt+Del and wait until disk activity has ceased).
Then,
1) Restart your system.
2) When the full-screen session appears, type:
CD X:\OS2\DLL <Enter>
(where X: is the drive where you installed OS/2).
3) Type:
COPY 8514_32.HUGEDLL 8514_32.DLL <Enter>
4) Now type:
EXIT <Enter>
and everything should be big to normal (Oh, I meant 'back' to normal.)
5) Cry a bit, and then tell yourself it's not *so* bad. Just think, it could be
worse: You could be using Windows!
CONFIGURING WIN-OS2 TO USE SMALL FONTS
To get Win-OS2 to use small fonts is pretty darn easy. No *real* fiddling required,
either.
1) Copy all the supplied *.FON files into your WINOS2\SYSTEM directory. For
example, if X: is the drive where you installed OS/2, and the unzipped files are
in C:\ZIPFILES, type:
COPY C:\ZIPFILES\*FON D:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2\SYSTEM <Enter>
2) Now, edit the file X:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2\SYSTEM.INI. Again, X: is
the drive where you installed OS/2
3) Change the following lines in the [boot] section
fonts.fon=8514sys.fon
fixedfon.fon=8514fix.fon
oemfonts.8514oen.fon
to
fonts.fon=vgasys.fon
fixedfon.fon=vgafix.fon
oemfonts.fon=vgaoem.fon
Then, under the [boot.description] section, change the line
display.drv=???
to
display.drv=8514/a (Small Fonts)
Also, ensure that the entry
aspect=xxx,xx,xx
says
aspect=100,96,96
If not, change it.
4) Look for a section in your SYSTEM.INI file called [8514.DRV]. If it is
there, it probably has a single entry saying:
dpi=120 (or something similar)
Change it to:
dpi=96
If there isn't an [8514.DRV] section, type the following at the end of the
your SYSTEM.INI file:
[8514.DRV]
dpi=96
5) Save the changed SYSTEM.INI file.
That should about do it! Start up a Win-OS2 FullScreen session and see
whether it worked or not. It should, really.
One last refinement is possible: you'll notice that the icon text in Win-OS2 uses
some or other crummy font (a beast somewhat akin to a rounded Arial font). I don't
like it (didn't, but now I don't have to look at it anymore, so hey...), so I fiddled
a bit, and lo, there was the cute little font that Windows uses for icon text.
Here's what to do:
1) Open the file X:\OS2\MDOS\WINOS2\WIN.INI file for editing, where X: is the
drive where you installed OS/2.
2) Find the [fonts] section, and change the lines:
MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24 (8514 res)=SSERIFF.FON
Courier 10,12,15 (8514 res)=COURF.FON
MS Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24 (8514 res)=SERIFF.FON
Symbol 8,10,12,14,18,24 (8514 res)=SYMBOLF.FON
Small Fonts (8514 res)=SMALLF.FON
to
MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24 (VGA res)=SSERIFE.FON
Courier 10,12,15 (VGA res)=COURE.FON
MS Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24 (VGA res)=SERIFE.FON
Symbol 8,10,12,14,18,24 (VGA res)=SYMBOLE.FON
Small Fonts (VGA res)=SMALLE.FON
Don't forget to change the E's on the font names.
3) Save the modified WIN.INI file.
4) Open a Win-OS/2 full-screen session and make sure it worked. If something is wrong,
fiddle (if you have the time), or change things back to the way they were.
The above modifications should result in Win-OS/2 running correctly seamlessly (i.e. on the
desktop). It's quite magic to see a small-fonts Win-OS/2 running on top of a small-fonts
OS/2. Really wonderful. Sort of makes you want to sing and dance. Jump up and shout. Fire
off a couple of flares! Tell the world. tYPE A BIT WITH CAPS LOCK ON. Oh, I'm sorry. I tend to get a little carried away every
now and then. You know how it is, though. If you don't, you obviously still have huge fonts. :)
PERSONAL DEFENCE
This section is included so that I can vent my irritation about all those people who kindly
enlightened me that I didn't have to include the Windows fonts with the driver. That I could
get them off the OS/2 installation disks.
The truth is, I am a total idiot. I didn't know that!
How do you think I got the fonts in the first place.
Secondly, how many people do you know who enjoy searching through hundreds of strangly
named files ending in _, or $$$, or something else understandable?
Those of you who think I am wasting network bandwidth by making you download the fonts
as well, feel free to ignore the driver and enjoy your huge fonts. :) If you really ask me
nicely, I'll upload a file called 8514S_NF.zip (8514 Small _ No Fonts included). ;-)
ICONS
Those of you with wonderful 256-colour 8514-resolution icons will probably be crying about now.
You'll have noticed that your lovely icons don't display using the 'new' driver. Don't worry, papa
has a fix. Well, not really a fix, but an idea.
Let me run this by you:
Pull out your icon editor (yeah, the ugly one that came with OS/2) and start converting your fonts
to VGA resolution.
If you're like me, a bit of "How to" is probably in order...
Step 1:
Double click on an icon (or somehow or other get it into the editor).
Step 2:
Choose "Device, List" from the menu.
Step 3:
Choose "Add"
Step 4:
Select "Independent Color Form" and the press "Customize"
Step 5:
Change colors supported to 256 and make sure that Image size is 32x32.
Step 6:
Select "OK" and then select "Cancel". Yes, the second selection *must* be
"Cancel". If you don't believe me, try selecting the "OK" button next...
Step 7:
Marvel a bit at your new 32x32 256 colour icon.
Step 8:
Repeat process until satisfied.
Note: If your system seems to "hang" for about 10 seconds or so after you close the icon
editor each time, don't worry. So does mine. NO, it is not a driver problem, but seems
to be something to do with the icon editor (I tried it with the original IBM driver,
and got the same mini-hang.).
For those of you who couldn't be bothered (I assume that's most of you :) ), I have also uploaded a
collection of my favourite icons. They're in a file called MY_ICONS.ZIP. Don't laugh! What would
you have called the silly things?
CONCLUSION
That's it! I hope the driver is to your liking.
If this driver is useful, or if you have any comments/suggestions/complaints, you should note
that I don't like complaints, I do like praise, and I will consider suggestions. Feel free to
drop much praise into my e-mail account, as well as the odd suggestion. Praise will be
answered, and I'll probably answer suggestions (and send you a free lollypop).
Have fun, and let me know how you get along.
Regards,
Stuart Robertson.