DOS ain't dead

How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? (Developers)

posted by rr  , Berlin, Germany, 16.03.2022, 23:59

> This might be stating the obvious, but as a last-ditch solution, if you
> can't minimize text display with a command-line switch or a DOS Environment
> variable, you might be able to manually hack the text out using a
> hex/binary editor. (Of course, this makes the changes permanent.)

That's what I also had in mind, but I wanted to ask before.

> Search for the "offending" text string, and if it's an ASCII-Z string
> (ending with ASCII code 0), you can overwrite the string with ASCII zeroes.
> If it's a DOS string (ending with ASCII code 24h, the $ character), you
> can overwrite the string with ASCII code 24h. However, sometimes there's a
> catch: If the LF+CR line terminators (ASCII ODh+0Ah) are displayed by a
> separate subroutine (i.e., not embedded in the text string itself), there's
> probably nothing you can easily do to eliminate line feeds, but at least
> the annoying text will be gone. (Replaced by annoying blank lines!)

It was a little more difficult, because different tools used different methods for showing the banner.

Anyway, here are my results for some of the binaries in the 'binnt' directory:
Open Watcom Assembler Version 1.9 (wasm.exe)
0003AC00: D2 00
0003AC01: C4 00
0003AC02: 42 00

Open Watcom C16 Optimizing Compiler Version 1.9 (wcc.exe)
wccd.dll:
0001F855: B8 C3

Open Watcom C/C++16 Compile and Link Utility Version 1.9 (wcl.exe)
00002A44: B8 C3

Open Watcom Library Manager Version 1.9 (wlib.exe)
wlibd.dll:
000256E1: C9 00
000256E3: 6A 00

Open Watcom Linker Version 1.9 (wlink.exe)
wlinkd.dll:
0001D99F: BA EB
0001D9A0: 00 31

Open Watcom Make Version 1.9 (wmake.exe)
0000B8F8: 0A 00

All these tools now just show '... Version 1.9'.

> If the binary file has been compressed, it must of course be de-compressed
> before you edit it. You might want to first test that the de-compressed
> binary will still run -- sometimes programs do a checksum at startup, and
> won't continue if not correct.

The binaries were not compressed nor do they checksum at startup.

---
Forum admin

Complete thread:

• How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? - rr, 08.03.2022, 13:02 (Developers)
  • How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? - andrewbird, 08.03.2022, 13:21
  • How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? - alexfru, 08.03.2022, 17:41
    • How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? - Rugxulo, 08.03.2022, 18:01
      • How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? - rr, 08.03.2022, 20:23
    • How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? - rr, 08.03.2022, 19:51
      • How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? - alexfru, 09.03.2022, 05:34
  • How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? - Doug, 11.03.2022, 20:19
    • How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? - rr, 16.03.2022, 23:59
      • How do I make Open Watcom tools less noisy? - rr, 17.03.2022, 12:05