DOS ain't dead

> > Question... is
> > there any way to modify this to pass the object name as a parameter
> > (maybe via dummyfilename?).
> Yes. Do you want the fonts to be stored in the EXE or as separate files?
> The reason for asking is depending on what you need depends on the end
> code.
>

Hmm, didn't know I could store them in the EXE. Would be nice to know how to do that too, but for this I'm interested in basically having whatever font .obj files in the directory and calling them from the code. Right now I have four font.obj files (fonta1.obj, ... fonta4.obj) and the object names are fonta1 ... fonta4.

> Aside from object files there are other ways of including data within the
> EXE but as object files are a fairly straight forward method I decided to
> use it for you here. I'll be interested in knowing a little more in terms
> of what you want to do and will then revisit this code (and similar code I
> have also written) and see what I can muster up which will be straight
> forward to use.

Thanks, as always I appreciate it.

> > I'm hoping to have this done within a week or so, as I'm headed north
> with
> > our newborn to introduce him to my family (2 months old already!)
> Excellent update! Just be sure to introduce him to computers early also
> ;)
Oh definitely. He already watches me work in my office.

By the way...RR ... if you're out there...how's your baby doing? Getting close to their first birthday isn't it?

> > aPACK isn't working on my system, as I have a 64-bit OS. I'll try to
> dig
> > up a 32-bit one to see if it works on that.
>
> Maybe MS-DOS Player for Win32-x64 (WIP) helps you.

Hard to imagine that DOSBox is less useful for that. Besides, did I miss something, was aPACK so horribly crucial over UPX? UPX is cross-platform and can pack/unpack on any OS (e.g. Win32 pack/unpacks DOS stuff on Win64).

EDIT: (Obviously) congrats on the baby! Kudos on the software update too. Now if I wasn't so lazy/forgetful to play it again ....

> My main issue is that so much code is TP7 only, which hampers using TP55
> freeware. Or other code is too big and complex to use for simple projects.
Ok, let's help fix some of that :) Just for you I have back ported to TP5 some TP7 code I wrote a while ago to generate COM files from TP. The TP5 version appears below and I quickly rewrote it for you this morning under TP5. It isn't as well tested as the TP7 version but "appears" fine, feel free to test as to be honest although it seems fine I haven't had a chance to fully review but thought I would share now "as is" to allow people to have a play with it.

Program TP5_2COM;  {This is an example of how to generate COM files from TP5}

{Freeware code example by Richard L. James http://www.wimborne.org/richard/ }
{VERY IMPORTANT: Always REVIEW generated code created with method shown here}
{This code example uses TP5 to generate EXE code from which we generate a COM}
{Mostly released as a technical curosity for interested people to play with!}
{Use of the following code is entirely at your own risk without any warranty}
{It is *NOT* recommend using this code as is with other versions of TP pascal}


Const
  ExitCodeLength=4;

  NewCode:Array[1..5] of byte =    {We need to ensure BP points after our PSP}
    ($BD, $10, $01, {mov  BP, 110h}  {TP code generated by "subtracks" off BP}
     $EB, $0C);     {jmp short 111}  {Jump to the start of TP generated code}


Var                {Note: We do NOT save the following variables to our .COM}
  COMFile:File;    {Define a binary COM file}
  NumWritten:Word; {BlockWrite needs this variable in this demo we ignore it}



Procedure SaveMe; {We setup code/data we want to save out in single procedure}

Var
  XCounter, YCounter:Word;   {These values are NOT saved but redefined below}


Begin
  {Note: NewCode is SAVED as the start of our .COM file starting org 100h}
  {Then we define some variable space using 00h bytes for 2 variables}

  {IMPORTANT: If adding variables you will NEED to increase this area and
              you will ALSO need to change NewCode appropriately.  Always
              (I repeat ALWAYS) view/check any generated code in a hex editor
              before attempting to run it and keep "everything" in one proc!}

  inline($00/$00/   {BP -A} {Unused variable in this example}
         $00/$00/   {BP -8} {Unused variable in this example}
         $00/$00/   {BP -6} {Unused variable in this example}
         $00/$00/   {BP -4} {In this example our redefined YCounter variable}
         $00/$00/   {BP -2} {In this example our redefined XCounter variable}
         $00/$00);  {BP   } {org 0110h - we point BP here via "newcode" above}

  {In this example the following code starts at org 111h "newcode" jumps here}
  inline($B8/$13/$00/  {mov ax, 0013}  {Change to 320x200 graphics mode}
         $CD/$10);     {int 10h}       {Call Int 10h}

  For XCounter:=0 to 319 do            {Generate a simple 320x200 picture}
    For YCounter:=0 to 199 do
      Mem[$A000:(YCounter*320)+XCounter]:=YCounter xor XCounter;

  inline($31/$C0/      {xor ax,ax}     {AX = 0}
         $CD/$16);     {int 16h}       {Call BIOS to wait for a keypress}

  inline($B8/$03/$00/  {mov ax, 0003h} {Change to 80x25 colour text mode}
         $CD/$10);     {int 10h}

  inline($B8/$00/$4C/  {mov ax, 4C00h} {Terminate with an error code of 0}
         $CD/$21);     {int 21h}       {End program}

  {TP5 generates proc exit code here - we avoid saving it with ExitCodeLength}
End;


Procedure UpToMe;  {Dummy "up to marker" marker to help save our TP code out}

Begin
  {do nothing}
End;


{Our main program does NOT call the above code but simply copies it to a COM}

Begin
  Writeln;
  Writeln('TP5_2com - example program of how to create a COM file with TP5');
  Writeln('Attempting to create tinytp5.com');

  Assign(COMFile, 'tinytp5.com');    { Assign output name to our TP5 .COM file}
  ReWrite(COMFile, 1);               { Create new file with record size = 1 }

  BlockWrite(COMFile, NewCode, SizeOf(NewCode), NumWritten); {Save COM header}
  BlockWrite(COMFile, Mem[Seg(SaveMe):Ofs(SaveMe)+14], {Save out TP proc code}
                     (Ofs(UpToMe)-14)-ExitCodeLength, NumWritten);
                     {note the above -14/+14 avoids saving TP entry/exit code}

  {Normally in a program some error checking would be good here but due to
   the nature of this example I would recommend manually checking any code !!}

  Close(COMFile);    {Close our new file}

  Writeln('tinytp5.com created - "review" with a hex editor before running!');
  Writeln;
  Halt;              {end our TP5 .COM after saving out our example COM file}
End.


> > > You could always use Frank Heckenbach's solution(s) in his
> He seems to provide three methods, all different, in case someone can't use
> the best one (apparently RTL srcs needed for #2).
Correct the RTL source only came with Borland Pascal not Turbo Pascal. There are some extremely easy ways of patching Turbo Pascal CRT RTL from within Turbo Pascal, some of which are demonstrated by NewDelay others methods.

> and don't use Delay (obviously).
Ok. The problem being I guess no good fix like newdelay currently available for TP5? If need be I would be happy some time to help back port it to TP5 just to help anyone keen to use TP5. I started out with it but when TP3/TP4 when in education but brought TP7 for myself. The key thing about versions after TP5 is obviously the inclusion of Asm over the harder to use inline.
However importantly TP5 does of course also include external asm obj logic.

> To be honest, the only huge benefits to using TP55 at all (IMHO)
> are 8086 compatibility and really small .EXE size.
You meant the large EXE size :) Now I've shared some COM file generating code you can hopefully re-use that to get the added benefit of asm size with TP5!

> Otherwise I'd just use GPC or FPC or VPC or whatever.
It is nice to have a mix, there are lots of options and I think it is choosing the right tool for the right job. FPC is very well written.

> (Note that I'm a very very wimpy Pascal programmer now, heh,
heh that's exactly how I would describe my C programming but I can do both.

> Also, keep in mind that Eric Auer and I had a conversation in e-mail a few
> years ago about how FreeDOS somehow handles differently the tempfile
> mechanism in IUP, so for that platform you'll probably have to run IUP in
> the root directory for it to fully work (kludge).
Ok thanks for the warning.


> See Robert's
> UPXDUMP tool if
> you haven't already.
Thanks. I have but have deliberately not referenced UPXDUMP as often I like to understand/do things for myself before then seeing how others have done it.

> aPACK 1.00 is freeware even for commercial use. UPX is free for any use,
> including commercial, but you must GPL your UPX modifications if you don't
> use their stock stubs.
Indeed and these are the things that I like about aPACK over UPX :)