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1992-03-02
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MulAware (MultiTasker Aware) 2.21
Copyright (c) 1991,1992 A.B.S. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Designed & Written by Jack Ridgway
Page 1
MulAware 2.21 Copyright (c) 1991,1992 A.B.S. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
DISCLAIMER
Users of MulAware must accept this disclaimer of warranty:
"MulAware is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties,
expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties
of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author
assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which
may result from the use of MulAware."
FREEWARE AGREEMENT
MulAware is a "freeware program" and is provided at no charge to
the user. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do
not give it away altered or as part of another system. Anyone
distributing MulAware for any kind of remuneration must first
contact A.B.S. at the address listed below for authorization.
This authorization will be automatically granted to distributors
recognized by the (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for
shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering
MulAware immediately; however, A.B.S. must still be advised so that
the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of
MulAware.
Page 2
MulAware 2.21 Copyright (c) 1991,1992 A.B.S. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WHAT IS MulAware?
MulAware is a Turbo Pascal 6.0 Unit to make your programs fully
MultiTasker Aware. MulAware currently supports the following
multitaskers:
Windows 386 2.xx
Windows 3.0 in 386enh mode
DESQview 2.26+
DoubleDOS
TaskView, TopView, OmniView, & clones
VMiX, and possibly others, will be added in the future.
MulAware is 90% Assembler Code, and is very efficient and fast.
HOW TO USE MulAware
Since this is a programmer's tool, I'm going to assume you have
decent knowledge of computers in general, and Turbo Pascal in
particular. Simply place MulAware in your USES statement.
USES
Crt,
MulAware,
Dos;
PROCEDURES & FUNCTIONS
See the enclosed MULAWARE.INT for correct calling procedures.
MulAware defines 5 typed boolean constants, and contains 4 procedures
and 3 functions.
The constants are:
MultiTasker - True if any multitasker is present
DV_Loaded - True if DESQview loaded
TV_Loaded - True if TopView or Compatible loaded
DDOS_Loaded - True if DoubleDOS loaded
WIN_Loaded - True if Windows 3.0 386enh or Windows 386 2.xx loaded
They are all initialized to False, and checked in the order listed;
therefore, although DESQview is TopView compatible, if DV is present,
TV_Loaded will be false. MultiTasker is initialized to true, and
is set to false if MulAware is unable to detect one of the supported
multitaskers.
Page 3
MulAware 2.21 Copyright (c) 1991,1992 A.B.S. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The procedures are:
TimeSlice
Causes the current task to give up the rest of its time slice.
Useful in loops while waiting for keyboard input. This procedure
is valid for all, and has no effect if a multitasker is not
present.
PreventSwitching
Suspends multitasking and only services the current task.
Useful during critical program functions. This procedure is
valid for all, and has no effect if a multitasker is not present.
ResumeSwitching
Called to resume multitasking after it has been suspended by
PreventSwitching. This procedure is valid for all, and has no
effect if a multitasker is not present.
TV_UpdateBuffer(Num : Word; Buffer, CharOffset : Word)
Must be called when running under TaskView or clones to update
the screen from the virtual buffer. This may be called under
DESQview, but doing so will cause DESQview to stop updating the
screen automatically. Num contains the number of sequential
characters that were changed. Buffer:CharOffset points to the
first character changed. This procedure could crash the machine
if called when TV_Loaded and DV_Loaded are both False!
The functions are:
VirtualBuffer : Word
Returns the address of the virtual video buffer.
Useful for doing direct screen writes without 'bleed through'.
This function is valid for DESQview and TopView.
For DoubleDOS, this procedure must be called everytime you wish
to do a direct write, because the buffer changes.
Under Windows, or when no multitasker is present, this returns 0.
DDOS_Visible : Boolean
Returns true if the current task is the visible task under DoubleDOS.
Returns false if DDOS NOT running OR if the current task is the
invisible task. You must check DDOS_Loaded if a false is returned.
MulVersion : Word
Returns the version number for DESQview 2.26+, TopView, Windows
(200 for 2.xx), 0 for all others or no multitasker present,
& unknown for OmniView.
Page 4
MulAware 2.21 Copyright (c) 1991,1992 A.B.S. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
REGISTRATION
MulAware is distributed as FreeWare. This is a contribution to all
the shareware/freeware/pd programmers, to whom I certainly owe a
lot. Please read the DISCLAIMER & FREEWARE AGREEMENT earlier in
the documentation for more information.
Fully commented source code for MulAware is available for $50.
This includes a royalty free license agreement and one year of
free upgrades.
ABSMulti is a commercial product also available from A.B.S.
ABSMulti is a SUPERSET of the routines contained in MulAware. It
contains most of the DESQview, TopView, and DoubleDOS APIs, as
well as all Windows functions accessible from a DOS program.
ABSMulti is $99, and it comes with fully commented source code,
a royalty free license agreement, documentation, and one year of
free upgrades.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
A.B.S.
P.O. Box 55647
Jackson, MS 39296-5647
601-362-4071 9am-6pm CST
The Big Bang Theory BBS
SysOp: Jack Ridgway
601-366-1664
USR Dual Standard
CIS - 70740,450
GEnie - J.RIDGWAY4
SL_Net - 250:302/532
FidoNet - 1:3632/104
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
* Turbo Pascal is a registered trademark of Borland International
* MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation
* DESQview is a registered trademark of Quarterdeck Office Systems
* VMiX is a registered trademark of Commercial Software Associates
* Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation
* All other programs are (c) and/or (tm) by their respective
author unless otherwise noted
Page 5
MulAware 2.21 Copyright (c) 1991,1992 A.B.S. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED