Sender: vheyndri AT rug DOT ac DOT be Message-Id: <35444366.1F64@rug.ac.be> Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 10:35:50 +0200 From: Vik Heyndrickx Mime-Version: 1.0 To: djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com Subject: compatibility issues with BIOS functions Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: bulk Hi w AT d DOT c's, Some user reported keyboard problems with RHIDE. It wouldn't read the keyboard properly and RHIDE showed truly erratic behaviour. After removing the KBDBUF.SYS driver from config.sys everything works as it would with most of us. I haven't really searched why this fails with RHIDE, but I have a good idea. I think RHIDE is peeking into BIOS area to see whether a keystroke is available and read it afterwards using the BIOS function of interrupt 0x16. That is potentially dangerous since device drivers can alter the functioning of the BIOS. The libc functions work the same way. I propose to replace any references to the BIOS data area with interrupt calls to int 0x16. That may be a little slower, but at least it assures compatibility. Any thoughts? The problem may also have been caused by mixed BIOS and DOS calls, i.e. using the BIOS to test whether a key is available and read it afterwards from the console through DOS. I think this may occur with kbhit vs. getch, but I need to check this. -- \ Vik /-_-_-_-_-_-_/ \___/ Heyndrickx / \ /-_-_-_-_-_-_/ Knight in the Order of the Unsigned Types