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FASTBUFF.TXT
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1989-08-14
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56KB
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1,456 lines
FASTBUFF v2.6
Do-It-All Keyboard Enhancer
David Steiner
March 1989
Revision Help
Toad Hall
Keith Petersen
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Variable Size Keyboard Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Increased Key Repeat Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Anti-skid Braking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Screen Blanking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Repeat Characters Entered Through the Alt-Keypad . 2
Enter Graphics Characters With the Alt-Keypad . . . 2
Disable FASTBUFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
RUN-TIME CONTROL KEYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
ALT-RIGHT SHIFT: Clear the keyboard buffer . . . . . . . 3
[5]-MINUS: Set repeat rate slow . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
[5]-PLUS: Set repeat rate fast . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
[5]-DEL: Turn off FASTBUFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
[5]-INS: Turn FASTBUFF back on . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
| [5]-HOME: Toggle screen blanking . . . . . . . . . . . . 3a
| [5]-END: Blank the screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3a
COMMAND LINE SETUP PARAMETERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
/Bn : Set buffer size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
/Vn : Set screen blanking delay . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
/Dn : Set repeat delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
/F : Select fast repeat rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
/S : Select slow repeat rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
SPECIFICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
HOOKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
09H : Keystroke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
(16H : Keyboard I/O) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
(08H : Hardware Timer Interrupt) . . . . . . . . . 6
1CH : Get Control on Timer Tick . . . . . . . . . . 7
10H : Video I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
THE SOURCE CODE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
INT 9 - KEYSTROKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Video counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Command Key Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
FASTBUFF on/off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
First Alt-Key Break Check . . . . . . . . . . 10
Check for Clear Key Combination . . . . . . . 10
Call Old Interrupt Handler . . . . . . . . . . 10
CTRL-BREAK Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
New Character Detected . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
PUT CHARACTER INTO OUR BUFFER . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Last Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Repeat Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Increment Tail Pointer . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Turn the repeat function on . . . . . . . . . 12
INT 10 - VIDEO I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Reset Blanking Counter . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Check if Video Disabled . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Function FAH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
INT 1C - TIMER TICK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Check if FASTBUFF is on . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Decrement Blanking Counter . . . . . . . . . . 13
Video Blanking Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Update BIOS Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Repeating Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
UPDATEBIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Check FASTBUFF Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Transfer to BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Minimum Buffer Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
REPEATING KEYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Set Repeat Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Anti-Skid Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Repeating the Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
INITIALIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
BYE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
REVISIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
| v2.6: Toad Hall fix, 14 Aug 89 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
v2.5: Toad Hall Tweak, 1 May 89 . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
v2.4: Toad Hall Tweak, 2 Apr 89 . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
v2.3: David Steiner, March 15, 1989 . . . . . . . . . . 18
v2.2: Toad Hall Tweak, 2 Mar 89 . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
v2.1: Toad Hall Tweak, 23 Feb 89 . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
INTRODUCTION
The only thing you really need to know in order to use FASTBUFF
is that to install it you type FASTBUFF and hit the ENTER key.
To see the results just hold down a key and watch how fast it
goes. If you run into problems with a program that doesn't like
FASTBUFF then you may want to look over this documentation a
little closer.
Even if you're not entirely sure you like the idea of such a
keyboard enhancement program, at least give FASTBUFF a trial run.
After all, its a free program. You will quite likely find it
frustrating to go back to the normal repeat rate and buffer size.
Version 2.0 is a fairly large improvement over version 1.0, even
though this one has been released fairly quickly after the first.
The only bug fix was related to typing in characters via the
numeric keypad. It seems that the repeat function always ended
up set, and wouldn't stop till you hit another key.
REQUIREMENTS
FASTBUFF was written on an IBM XT compatible computer. It should
work with true IBM PC's just fine. I've also tested it on AT
compatibles, and it seems to work OK. The video blanking works
for CGA and monochrome systems, but not EGA. I doubt it will
work for other video cards either. I'll try to provide support
for them at a later date when I have time. If you don't have a
video card that is supported, it is best to disable this
function.
As far as memory is concerned, FASTBUFF only eats up