DOS ain't dead

ANSI escapes for input (Developers)

posted by kerravon, Ligao, Free World North, 07.02.2024, 08:23

> > > ANSIplus is most likely what you need.
> >
> It looks like it does do what I want, but unfortunately
> it looks like HX bypasses both DOS and the BIOS and
> directly manipulates the keyboard hardware!

Some completely unrelated work (getting gcc 3.2.3 to
use 64-bit long) triggered a reinvestigation into this.

Starting with Windows PE32. I realized there was a
way to detect whether I had received a single ESC
from Windows, rather than PDOS/386, that needed to
be doubled. That made Windows 10+ work properly for
my ANSI applications.

But I couldn't find any good way to work on Windows
2000, as there is no ANSI support in cmd.exe.

But there is in command.com if I add ansi.sys to
config.nt.

And that allowed me to get MSDOS working without
ansiplus (I instead changed pdpclib). And then I
realized I could change Linux the same way too,
so I did that.

So pre-Win 10 was the only holdout.

Then I realized I might be able to use HX to load
the PE32 in a command.com window in Windows 2000.
But HX refused to load because it said my environment
already support PE32, and I couldn't see an obvious
way to say "do it anyway".

I was thinking of requesting an enhancement to HX,
but then I added "dosonly" to my config.nt and HX
was willing to load and I was able to put in a
different Windows change (customized for pre-Win10),
and hey presto - I could run ANSI-supporting (both
keyboard and screen) Win32 executables under HX on
Windows 2000.

There are probably add-on ANSI drivers to support
ANSI for Win32 before Windows 10 that I could use
instead of HX (and they would be required for
64-bit Windows 7 and 8 for example, where command.com
and thus ansi.sys is no longer available), but HX is
good enough for me, for now.

Windows 2000 is good because it allows me to run
OS/2 1.x programs as well.

It took me quite a while to realize that pdpclib was
the place to make this change instead of changing
every terminal emulator I used or whatever. I was
basically asking the wrong question.

BFN. Paul.

Complete thread:

• ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 18.07.2023, 02:08
  • ANSI escapes for input - mbbrutman, 24.07.2023, 03:01
    • ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 24.07.2023, 15:18
      • ANSI escapes for input - DosWorld, 08.02.2024, 23:03
        • ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 09.02.2024, 13:17
    • ANSI escapes for input - ecm, 24.07.2023, 17:01
      • ANSI escapes for input - mbbrutman, 25.07.2023, 03:35
        • ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 25.07.2023, 12:34
          • ANSI escapes for input - KormaX, 25.07.2023, 12:57
            • ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 27.07.2023, 07:15
              • ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 30.07.2023, 09:08
                • ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 31.07.2023, 15:21
                • ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 07.02.2024, 08:23
                  • ANSI escapes for input - bocke, 07.02.2024, 08:45
                    • ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 09.02.2024, 10:00
                      • ANSI escapes for input - bocke, 09.02.2024, 20:10
                        • ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 09.02.2024, 22:07
          • ANSI escapes for input - mbbrutman, 27.07.2023, 04:51
            • ANSI escapes for input - kerravon, 27.07.2023, 07:25