80x43

[Richard Goerwitz]

In article <1989Nov21.022428.28349 at contact.uucp> eisen at contact.UUCP (Martin Loeffler) writes:
>In a slightly related circumstance... My VGA card has built-in modes of
>operation (ie. 132x60 mode. Tiny, but visible). Does Xenix have any facility to
>access these modes, or is it totally dependant on it's own screen fonts? It
>occurs to me that it would be more efficient to use the 512K on my VGA card,
>rather than memory that Xenix could better use. The card came with a few DOS
>utilities to change the screen format, but not much explanation of how they did
>it, or source code for the program.. I could write and ask, but I think most
>VGA cards have this feature and I am hoping that SCO is exploiting it.

Accessing these modes is going to depend on the hardware manufacturer getting
it's act together, and supplying drivers for what they often call "nonstan-
dard operating systems." :-)  Anyway, I have an ATI VGA and ATI hasn't
even gotten around to supplying OS/2 drivers, still less Xenix ones.  Unless
SCO decides to support a few of the more well-known brands (such as Para-
dise, ATI) - which we can hardly expect them to do - there isn't much to
do.  For instance, my card can emulate just about all the standard cards -
Hercules, CGA, MDA, etc., and can work in higher-than-normal resolutions
on screens that aren't meant to handle them (by interlacing).  Anyway, there's
no way to tell Xenix what is going on.  I tried calling ATI, and telling them
to eat and drink, for tomorrow DOS dies.  No luck.

   -Richard L. Goerwitz              goer%sophist at uchicago.bitnet
   goer at sophist.uchicago.edu         rutgers!oddjob!gide!sophist!goer