Category : C Source Code
Archive   : BFONTC11.ZIP
Filename : BIOSFONT.DOC

 
Output of file : BIOSFONT.DOC contained in archive : BFONTC11.ZIP

BiosFonts For Borland C++ Ver. 1.1
By
Michael Chapin

The BGI allows you to use one bitmapped font and several stroked
fonts. The stroked fonts can be written in several different
sizes as can the default bit mapped font.

While the stroked fonts look good when expanded, the bit mapped
font looks terrible. It would be nice to have a few more bit
mapped fonts at your disposal. A natural place to go looking
would be the bios fonts that come with the machine.

The BIOS provides methods to use these fonts but in a very
unsatisfactory fashion. The square where the font is written is
blotted out. You could do a sidestep and XOR the characters on
the screen but then you would get bleed through from the
underlying pattern. Also you are still stuck with writing on
byte boundaries. You are spoiled now because you can write
characters to the graphics screen at any pixel.

BiosFonts allows you to use the fonts inherent in the PC. For
VGA you get three fonts, an 8x8, 8x14 and 8x16 font. For the EGA
you have the 8x8 and the 8x14 fonts. In CGA you only have the
8x8 font but you can use the BIOS font for some variety. It's
not as pretty as the default font but it is different. Also due
to all the memory manipulation they are sluggish when running on
a 4MHz. machine.

You write the BIOS fonts at any pixel boundary and in any color
you wish. I have also added background color, justification and
writing direction. Look at the file BIOSFONT.INC for information
on the TPU and how to use the functions.

With version 1.1 the package has been made library independent.
With version 1.0, the libraries used the bar function to generate
the background color for the fonts. There is now a function in
the library ColorBlock that puts a solid colored block on the
screen. This allows BiosFonts to run with any graphics package
without either package interfering with the other. It also
supports EGA mode 13 (320x200x16) and VGA mode 19 (320x200x256).

The Shareware version has the following files:
BIOSFONT.H - The interface to the BiosFont Unit.
FONTDEMO.C - A short demo program.
BFONT_S.LIB - Small model library to test the functions.
BIOSFONT.DOC - This file.

This product is Shareware. Distribute the shareware version
anywhere you wish to. The registered version is a copyrighted
product and treat it the same as you would a book and use it like
you would any software you have purchased.

With registration you get the source code to the BiosFont TPU and
are put on a list for upgrades as they come out. If there is
enough demand, I will rewrite some of the code in ASM to speed it
up. Right now everything is written in C (that is why the CGA
fonts are slower).

The package supports CGA Modes 4, 5, and 6; EGA modes 13, 14 and
16; VGA modes 19 and 19. As the library runs now, access to the
fonts is dependent upon the mode chosen. A more sophisticated
way to choose the fonts would be to check what card is on the
system rather than just check for mode. Also the fonts will only
write on the first page of a particular EGA mode. The registered
version has code that will allow you to write on any page the
machine is capable of.

With version 1.1 the library is independent of whatever other
graphics library you happen to be using. The method to do this
was to implement my own function to handle putting colored blocks
on the screen. This is function ColorBlock(). It is also a good
way to draw horizontal and vertical lines. This is what the
function is used for in the demo. Internally it is used to
generate background color for the fonts.

Version 1.1 now supports EGA 320x200x16 and VGA 320x200x256.
These modes are not available with the drivers that are supplied
with the compiler but are available in third party drivers. Two
that are readily available on most BBSs are VGA16 and VGA256.

To register, fill out the order form and send a check or money
order for $15.00 in U.S. funds to:

Michael Chapin
415 Timothy Court
Gillette, WY 82716
(307)682-1195

For any questions I can be reached at the above phone or on GEnie
at M.CHAPIN. No collect calls please. I will probably think you
are a siding salesman or something and won't accept it.

OTHER PRODUCTS AVAILABLE

Magazine Filer:
Handy program for keeping track of magazine articles. Keep a
record of magazine articles by user defined categories and sub-
categories.

Up to 30 magazine titles can be indexed. The program will handle
20 categories, each with 20 sub-categories. Features include
printing the database, finding articles by category and sub-
category. Finding articles with a record mask is also available.

Disk Archiver:
How many times have you tried to find a particular file on a
disk? The process usually involves going through most of your
disks, looking at each one. The process is usually made more
difficult because the file is in a compressed archive such a ZIP
or ARC file. This can be frustrating and very time consuming.

Disk Archiver could be the answer for you. It makes a database
of all files you want to put into it. All you do is put your
disk in the drive you want to check and the program will list all
the files on the disk, going two directories deep. You then
choose the files to add to the database, categorizing and adding
comments. Now when you want to find a file, search for it by
category, filename or use a mask that will take into
consideration the comments.

The user has complete control over disk numbering method, 30
category names (each with 20 subcategories.

Versi-Draw :
Programmers drawing program. Allows you to make drawings for
programs. Drawings are saved to a file for use by other
programs. Drawings are saved in Borland BGI, JPI-MicroSoft and
GFX format. Drawings can be done in formats ranging from CGA 4
color to VGA 16 color.

Drawing features include line, dot, curve, box, ellipse and font
drawing modes. Pattern and solid figure fills are supported.
Also a replace color with a pattern is supported as is
magnification of an area for detailed drawing. Fifteen fonts are
provided with the option of adding other GEM type fonts.

Program requires at least an EGA and a MicroSoft compatible
mouse.

OOPTIX:
A programmers library that implements a graphical user interface
for use in your programs. The Turbo Pascal and Turbo C++
versions are object oriented for ease of use. The Turbo C Ver. 2
libraries have an OOP flavor to makes it very easy to use.

The library uses the BGI graphics that comes with all Borland
languages, so there are no extra graphics libraries to buy.

Features included are :
Mouse Support
Widgits - Thumbwheels, choice boxes, Radiopads, Buttons,
Scroll bars and much more.

Boxes - Choice boxes, Directory boxes.

Full source code comes with the package.

BiosFont:
When you have an EGA you have two fonts available in the BIOS; an
8x8 and an 8x14. With a VGA you have those two plus an 8x16
font. These fonts are nice for graphics in that they take up no
extra memory. Most libraries access these fonts through BIOS
calls which only let you write on a byte boundary and blot out
the image under the text box. Depending upon your video mode,
you only have access to the font that is the default for that
mode.

A way around this is to use BiosFont. This allows you to write
the BIOS characters anywhere on the screen. Also, underlying
graphics are not destroyed where the character is not printed.
You can also mix the fonts on the screen for different effects.

The package is completely independent of any graphics library
that you happen to use so there is no interference with other
libraries.

Full source code comes with the package.

PRG :
PRG stands for presentation graphics. These are routines,
written using the graphics library that comes with the compiler,
that do line graphs, bar graphs, histograms, pie charts or

scatter diagrams. Since these routines use the graphics library
that is supplied with the particular compiler, there is nothing
much else to buy. The exception to this is the JPI compilers.
Since they have no method to write text on a pixel boundary, the
library requires BiosFont also.

You, the programmer, supply the data, set the graph up to look
the way you want and library takes care of the rest.
COMING SOON:

PRG_GFX :
These libraries are the same as the PRG libraries but use
the faster and more versatile GFX Graphics library. This
library is required to run these libraries. Look for this
around the middle of 1991. All compilers that have the GFX
library available will be supported. These include :

TopSpeed Modula-2
Stony Brook Modula-2
Turbo C V2.0
Turbo Pascal V5.5+
Turbo C++

Expected to run about $25.00.

OOPTIX For TopSpeed Compilers :
The OOPTIX library will be available for the TopSpeed line
of compilers. All languages will be supported. This will
make the excellent OOPTIX interface available for TopSpeed
compilers. All languages will use standard libraries except
C++ which will have the object oriented interface.

VERSI-DRAW 256 :
Versi-Draw version that supports 256 colors in 320x200,
640x400, 640x480 and 800x600 resolutions on a variety of
SVGA cards. Expected date is the end of 1991.
ORDER FORM

Product Number Price
Versi Draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25.00
Magazine Filer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15.00
Disk Filer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35.00

Programmers Libraries:
OOPTIX - Turbo Pascal. . . . . . . . . . . . $45.00
OOPTIX - Turbo C Ver 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . $45.00
OOPTIX - Turbo C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . $45.00

BiosFont - Turbo Pascal. . . . . . . . . . . $15.00
BiosFont - Turbo C (ANSI & Ver 2). . . . . . $15.00
BiosFont - JPI Modula-2. . . . . . . . . . . $15.00
BiosFont - JPI C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15.00

PRG - JPI Modula-2 (requires BiosFont) . . . $25.00
PRG - JPI C (requires BiosFont). . . . . . . $25.00
PRG - Borland Turbo C++ (ANSI) . . . . . . . $25.00
PRG - Turbo Pascal . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25.00

Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _______

Disk Format 5 1/4[] 3 1/2[]

Name __________________________________________________

Street ________________________________________________

City __________________________________________________

State ______________________________ Zip ______________


Send to:
Michael Chapin
415 Timothy Court
Gillette, WY 82716
307-682-1195
GEnie M.CHAPIN


  3 Responses to “Category : C Source Code
Archive   : BFONTC11.ZIP
Filename : BIOSFONT.DOC

  1. Very nice! Thank you for this wonderful archive. I wonder why I found it only now. Long live the BBS file archives!

  2. This is so awesome! 😀 I’d be cool if you could download an entire archive of this at once, though.

  3. But one thing that puzzles me is the “mtswslnkmcjklsdlsbdmMICROSOFT” string. There is an article about it here. It is definitely worth a read: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/mtswslnk/