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Memory usage, AMIS(!) (Developers)

posted by Ninho E-mail, 13.05.2011, 18:15

> Just for the record, your program, or any program that simply intercepts
> INT 15.4F to remap the keyboard, is not even remotely equivalent to the MS
> KEYB program. You're comparing apples to oranges, as they say here in the
> USA.
>
> MS KEYB literally replaces the ENTIRE keyboard BIOS handler (INT 9) with a
> new one. Considering what it actually does, the memory requirements of MS
> KEYB (about 6 kB) are not unreasonable.

Of course - though I prefer slightly hacked, old versions from OEM MS DOS 3.x.
They work perfectly in every modern DOS, do NOT require access to voluminous separate keyb.sys tables (important for boot dikettes), and the driver itself requires half the memory than the newer versions.

> Many times, an INT 15.4F handler is all you need to accomplish what you
> want, but sometimes it isn't. AFAIK, there is no true equivalent to the MS
> KEYB program available anywhere.

Agreed, it's not equivalent. But pretty close IMHO; YMMV !
Also, the MS KEYB installs a full int 16 handler (while the ROM BIOS handler is almost always OK on an AT), plus "code page" stuff which personally I find so badly designed as to be practically useless, plus int 2F multiplex handler for said codepage stuff and more... bloat bloat bloat :=)

The way MS designed their internationaliZation or "i8n" stuff at the era of MS DOS 3.2x (?) was a cruel joke. Instead of OEM versions optimised for a particualr country and particular hardware, we got "one size fits all" stuff (same for country specific conventions for example. Perso for boot diskettes I use a cntryfr.sys which contains only stuff for US and FR and which I assembled from country.sys format description found, probably, in RBrown's list. But I must be one of a handful persons outside the USA who desn't suffer from MS's lack of care. So, please, don't praise Microsoft it doesn't work too well with me) <G>

---
Ninho

 

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