DOS ain't dead - KBFR 1.97 "lastest" beta...

KBFR 1.97 "lastest" beta... (Announce)

posted by Ninho , 23.06.2011, 15:25

> mov CX,DS:[10h+2Ch][/code]
> This should be:
> ; 5 - Mark our environment block, if any, FREE :> mov CX,es:[10h+2Ch]
> As otherwise, you're accessing the old PSP which as you know is already
> freed here.

This is a very good catch indeed, Christian! I'm impressed at the quality of your reviewing. This was the kind of hard to pinpoint bug because although not correct in theory the instruction will work... almost always!
It ceased to be correct at some time when the code was shuffled around...
Might have stayed unfixed w/o your help I dare say.

> ; 6 - ask DOS for a suitable block; make it owned by system> mov BX, (offset EndofInt15) -1 > shr BX, 4 > inc BX ; needed paragraphs
> The comment is outdated, because this version of the installer marks the
> block as self-owned instead.

OK, comment fixed.

> However, what I noticed there is that you're using additions from the 186
> instruction set, which is okay for a 15.4F driver, but it would be better
> if you actually checked for such a CPU before using those.

The test was omitted as redundant, since we do check for an AT BIOS (using only 8086 instructions). A positive result, it is assumed, guarantees at least a 286, and also that the BIOS int 9 will call down to int 15/4F.

°°°°°°°°

Thank you! Doesn't look far from a final release, after that.

I'm also doing a quick backport as KBGR (German keyboard) provided some Germans are willing to test it in earnest. And a question to start : should it switch between "." and "," (numeric pad) ? What's printed on the key itself, I can't discern on the small image I have of a German kb layout if it's a comma or decimal point there...

---
Ninho

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Complete thread:

KBFR 1.97 "lastest" beta... - Ninho, 23.06.2011, 11:14
- KBFR 1.97 "lastest" beta... - ecm, 23.06.2011, 12:51
  - KBFR 1.97 "lastest" beta... - Ninho, 23.06.2011, 15:25
    - KBFR 1.97 "lastest" beta... - ecm, 23.06.2011, 18:15
- KBFR 1.98 beta, release candidate - Ninho, 26.06.2011, 11:07