Category : Display Utilities
Archive   : BRNOT231.ZIP
Filename : BURNOUT.DOC

 
Output of file : BURNOUT.DOC contained in archive : BRNOT231.ZIP

BURNOUT II
V2.31 13-Apr-1989

Function
--------
BURNOUT II is an enhanced version of the old screen blanking
program of the same name; its primary purpose is to blank out
your video display after a specified length of time. BURNOUT II
is significantly enhanced over BURNOUT; not only does it allow
you better control over its operations, but it is written as a
virtual device driver so that you can control it directly from
your own programs.


V2.31 notes
-----------
This version just corrects a small bug that prevented BURNDEV
from loading correctly into "high" memory (above the video
adapter memory area) via programs such as 386MAX from Qualitas,
Inc. There is no change in function.


V2.30 notes
-----------
In hardware blanking mode (H+) this version will blank EGA and
VGA adapters, and it will turn off the CGA text mode border.
EGA owners should now use H+, because it will blank the screen
in any video mode (including 43-line mode) and it won't affect
communications, as H- mode does.

If you select H+ mode via CONFIG.SYS (i.e., at boot time),
BURNOUT 2.30 will use about 2K less memory than 2.20 did.
You will not be able to use H- mode after booting, however.


V2.20 Notes
-----------
This version will blank CGA-compatible adapters in graphics
modes.

The R parameter has been added. This is of interest primarily
to programmers.


V2.10 Notes
-----------
This version adds "on demand" screen blanking. By pressing the
left shift key and simultaneously, you can force the
screen to blank. The key combination can be altered via the new
F parameter.


Installation
------------
To install BURNOUT, follow two steps: place the file BURNDEV.SYS
in the root directory of your boot diskette or hard disk, and
modify the CONFIG.SYS file to include the statement
"device=burndev.sys".

NOTE: when installing a new device driver on a fixed
disk system, it is always advisable to test the driver
via a bootable diskette before making a change to the
fixed disk's CONFIG.SYS.

In case you are not familiar with CONFIG.SYS: this is a small
text file that DOS reads when booting. It contains various
pieces of information that DOS and other programs can use when
setting themselves up. Look in the root directory of your boot
disk for the file CONFIG.SYS. If no such file exists, just
type:

copy con \config.sys
device=burndev.sys

Then press F6 (you'll see "^Z") and , and you're done.

If you already have a CONFIG.SYS file (which is likely), you
must edit it to include the statement "device=burndev.sys". Do
this using your text editor or word processor in text mode (or
Edlin). Retain all existing information, and add the new line.

Now reboot your machine. If all goes well, it will boot as
usual. There will be no indication that anything has happened.
However, the screen should clear after about ten minutes of
inactivity. You can clear the screen instantly by pressing the
left shift key and simultaneously. After the screen has
cleared, any keystroke and most video activity will restore it.

BURNDEV uses about 2400 bytes of memory if installed in H+ mode,
4400 bytes if installed in H- mode (see below).


BURNOUT parameters
------------------
There are several ways in which you can alter the operation of
the BURNOUT system. There is a demo program called BURNOUT.COM
that you can use for this purpose. Its syntax is as follows:

BURNOUT [count] [Vñ] [Hñ] [Cñ] [Fn] [R]

The parameters are as follows:

COUNT: changes the number of clock ticks until the screen
blanks (this is called the "reset count"). For example,

BURNOUT 5000

sets the reset count to 5000. This means that if BURNOUT
observes no keyboard or video activity within 5000 clock ticks,
it will blank the screen. On IBM and compatible systems, there
are about 18.2 ticks per second, so the screen will clear after
about 5000/18.2 seconds (275 seconds, or about four and a half
minutes). (The default value on powerup is 10800 ticks, or
about 10 minutes). You can set the reset count anywhere from 1
tick (not highly recommended) to 65535 ticks (about an hour).

If you set the reset count to 0, BURNOUT will be effectively
disabled until you set a new nonzero count. This is useful for
programs that don't get along with the screen blanker.

V: This stands for Video, and tells BURNOUT whether you want it
to monitor video activity in addition to keyboard activity.
You can set either "V+" (monitor video), or "V-" (don't). Thus,

BURNOUT 5000 V-

sets the reset count to 5000 ticks, and not to monitor video.
Why would you not want to monitor video? Primarily because some
programs continuously update the display (e.g., with a ticking
clock) even when they're not doing anything. If you use V+, the
screen would never blank. The default setting is V+.

H: This stands for Hardware, and tells BURNOUT whether you want
it to blank the screen by manipulating the hardware (i.e., by
turning off the video signal), or by software (which it does by
temporarily changing screen attributes to black-on-black, or
nondisplay). Some explanation is in order.

The preferred method of blanking the screen is to do it by
manipulating the PC's video controller. This method is very
fast and in general has fewer problems than the software method.
However, it does have two problems. First, it is nonportable:
it doesn't work with all PC-compatibles or with all possible
video adapters. Second, there have been reports that this
method (which is used by most screen blanking programs) can
PHYSICALLY DAMAGE a few non-IBM video adapters, notably the
Hercules and similar cards.

DO NOT USE H+ IF YOU ARE USING A HERCULES OR
SIMILAR VIDEO ADAPTERS!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

If you ARE using a standard IBM video adapter or the equivalent,
try H+, with a setting of about 10 seconds, to make sure it
works:

BURNOUT 180 H+

The screen should blank in about 10 seconds. If it does not,
you will have to use H- (which is the default [safe] setting).
Reset BURNOUT to some reasonable period of time, of course,
after you have tested.

NOTE: in H- mode, BURNOUT won't fully clear screens with more
than 25 display lines, and it won't turn off the CGA border.

C: This stands for Continuous Clear. If you are using H+, you
can skip this one, because it is ignored in hardware blanking
mode. As mentioned above, software blanking is achieved by
simply changing all video attributes to nondisplay
(black-on-black). Now, if you are running in V- mode (not
monitoring video), or if you are running a program that
achieves video output by writing data directly to screen memory,
new data will begin to appear on the screen, even though it is
blanked. Continuous Clear attempts to remedy this by simply
resetting all the attributes to black-on-black every time the
clock ticks (18 times per second). The new data will flash on
the screen and disappear immediately.

F: This stands for Forced clear. It allows you to alter the
key combination that will clear the screen instantly. You will
need these codes:

Right shift: 1
Left shift: 2
Ctrl: 4
Alt: 8

Decide what keys you want to use (any combination is OK), and
add up the codes. For example, if you want the screen to clear
when you press both shift keys, add 1 + 2. Use the sum with the
F parameter:

BURNOUT F3

If you wish to disable forced blanking, use zero:

BURNOUT F0

Note that the maximum valid parameter is 15 (1+2+4+8, meaning
all four keys must be pressed). Any parameter above 15 will be
ignored.

R: this stands for Reset. It resets the current tick counter
to the reset value (i.e., to the COUNT value, default 10800) and
restores the screen if it is currently blanked. This is of
interest primarily to programmers who want to prevent BURNDEV
from blanking the screen during lengthy computations.

* * * *

BURNOUT parameters can be entered in any order; illegal
parameters, capitalization, and separators are IGNORED. Thus,
the following are all equivalent:

BURNOUT 5000 V+ H- F6
BURNOUT F6v+h-5000
BURNOUT H+, F6, V-, 5000
BURNOUT 5000H-F6V+

Obviously, you cannot enter something like:

BURNOUT F75000

to set the force keys to 7 and the count to 5000. You'd have to
use "5000F7" or "5000 F7", etc. In particular, note that
"F7 5000" will NOT work. When we said that separators are
ignored, we meant ignored. "F7 5000" and "F75000" are
identical insofar as BURNOUT is concerned.

If you enter a COUNT greater than 65535, you're on your own.
You won't get what you expect.

If you don't like the way BURNOUT.COM works, you're free to
"roll your own"; see the section on writing to BURNDEV.

When BURNOUT is finished, it will display the current device
status. For example:

Status: 09994,10000, ,C-,V+,H+

The format of the status line is:

Status: nnnnn,nnnnn,B,C+-,V+-,H+-

The first number is the current number of clock ticks remaining
till the next screen blank; the second is the reset count (in
this case, the two numbers will be very close). The "B", if
present, indicates that the screen is currently Blanked (you
won't see this after running BURNOUT--it is part of the stantus
report for the programmers' interface). The "C", "V", and "H"
flags indicate the current status of Continuous Clear, Video
monitoring, and Hardware clearing. If the parameter is active,
the indicator will be followed by a plus sign (+), otherwise a
minus sign (-). In the above example, then, the current count
is 09994, the reset count is 10000, the screen is not blanked
(naturally), Continous Clear is off, and Video monitoring and
Hardware clearing are on.

If you run BURNOUT without any parameters, it will simply
display status without changing anything.


Setting parameters via CONFIG.SYS
---------------------------------
You can also include any of these parameters in the CONFIG.SYS
file so that they will be set immediately when you boot. For
example,

device=burndev.sys 8000 H+ V- F5

If you set H+ mode via CONFIG.SYS, BURNOUT will use about 2K
less memory. However, you will not be able to switch to H- mode
after booting (more precisely, BURNOUT will permit you to
switch to H- mode, but the screen will never blank).


Software blanking, hardware blanking, and hardware damage
---------------------------------------------------------
As of this writing (April 14, 1989), the BURNOUT system has
been available to the public for over five years. We know that
it is installed on many thousands of systems, and we have NO
knowledge that BURNOUT has ever harmed a video adapter. The
warning above stems from our knowledge that the hardware
blanking technique as used by a similar program has, in fact,
been known to damage some Hercules graphics adapters.

To the best of our knowledge, hardware blanking is entirely safe
on all video adapters sold by IBM, and on all adapters that are
fully compatible. We know for a fact that it is safe on
IBM-manufactured monochrome, CGA, EGA, and VGA adapters.

Software blanking is safe on all adapters. It does not
manipulate the hardware at all; it merely changes all video
attributes (colors) to black-on-black, causing text to become
invisible. However, doing so is a time-consuming process (in
computer terms), and it can cause problems for some programs.
In particular, software blanking can create problems for
communications programs during lengthy file transfers; if the
screen blanks during a transfer, data will be lost and the
transfer will probably fail. Also, software blanking will not
work on anything other than an 80x25 screen. So, hardware
blanking is to be preferred--if it's safe.

The point of all this is, don't be panicked by the warnings
contained herein. Some people have told us, "we don't use
BURNOUT because it is dangerous; instead, we use program X."
Well, chances are excellent that program X uses exactly the same
technique--they just don't bother to tell you of the potential
danger, and they don't provide the alternative (and safe)
software blanking method. If you have an IBM adapter, use H+
with confidence. If you have a Hercules adapter, use H-. If
you have something else, PLEASE don't call us. We can't
help--we can't possibly purchase and test all of the adapters on
the market because we derive no revenues from BURNOUT. Ask your
dealer or the manufacturer if the card's video signal can be
disabled in the same manner as the CGA's video signal, i.e., by
turning off bit 3 of port 3D8h.


Using the BRNDEV device
-----------------------
NOTE: you will only need to read this section if you are a
programmer and are interested in controlling the BURNOUT system
from your own programs.

As mentioned above, the screen blanker is implemented as a
virtual device. The advantage to this is that it can be
interrogated or controlled very easily, from the DOS command
line or from your own programs. In fact, BURNOUT.COM is a very
simple program that takes your command line parameters, sends
them to the BURNOUT device, reads the current status back from
the device, and displays the results. This section explains how
to do this.

When DOS finds the "device=burndev.sys" line in config.sys, it
loads and installs the burndev.sys program as a virtual device.
What this means, practically speaking, is that there is now a
new "device" attached to your PC. You already have several
devices installed: CON, PRN, COM1 and COM2, AUX, your disk
drives, and possibly a RAM (or virtual) disk if you have
installed VDISK.SYS or another disk emulator.

The new device is known to DOS by the name "BRNDEV" (note: this
is NOT "BURNDEV", it's "BRNDEV", no U). Like other devices, you
can write (send information) to the device, and you can read
(receive information) from the device. BRNDEV is designed to
accept certain very specific information (the BURNOUT
parameters) when it is written to, and to return certain very
specific information (the BURNOUT status) when it is read from.


Writing to BRNDEV
-----------------
NOTE: you will only need to read this section if you are a
programmer and are interested in controlling the BURNOUT system
from your own programs.

How do you "write" to BRNDEV? There are many ways. The
simplest is to do it right from the keyboard, at the DOS prompt:

copy con brndev
@8000 V-#
^Z

The "copy con brndev" command instructs DOS that you want to
copy input from the console device to the BRNDEV device. The
console input "@5000 V-#" is copied to the BURNOUT device
when you hit the Ctrl-Z (end of copy) and (execute)
keys. To prove it worked, type "BURNOUT" and look at the new
parameters; they should reflect a reset count of 8000 and no
video monitoring. (The significance of @ and # will be
explained shortly.)

Another way to write to the device would be to copy a small
text file to BRNDEV. As an example, type

copy con brndemo.txt
@10000V+#
^Z

You should now have a small text file, the contents of which are
"@10000V+#". To send it to BRNDEV, just type

copy brndemo.txt brndev
or
type brndemo.txt > brndev

Run BURNOUT to prove that the parameters have changed.

The purpose of the "@" at the beginning of the output to BRNDEV
is to tell the device to flush or rewind its I/O buffers.
BRNDEV just sees a sequence of characters coming from DOS; it
has no particular way to know when it is getting a new sequence
of command characters. The "@" tells it to get rid of any old,
leftover junk and to start fresh. Make a habit of prefixing all
BRNDEV commands with an @ symbol.

The "#" is the "execute" character. It tells BRNDEV that it has
received the whole parameter list. Only when BRNDEV sees the #
will it examine the parameter list and execute the commands.
Thus, "#" should be at the end of all BRNDEV commands; something
like "@5000 C+H-" will have no effect at all. "#" also has a
second purpose, which will be covered below.

It is also possible, of course, to send commands to BRNDEV from
high level languages or from assembler programs. Here's a BASIC
example:

10 OPEN "\DEV\BRNDEV" FOR OUTPUT AS #1
20 PRINT #1, "@5000 C+ H-#";
30 CLOSE 1

[\DEV is a dummy directory that DOS creates for devices. The
use of \DEV above prevents the program from becoming confused by
a file called BRNDEV.]

And C (this is C86); you'd want to add some error detection:

{
FILE *burnout, *fopen();
static char command[] = "@5000 C+ H-#";

burnout = fopen("\\dev\\brndev","w");
fwrite(command, 1, strlen(command), burnout);
fclose(burnout);
}

For an 80x8x assembler example, see the source for BURNOUT.COM
(BURNOUT.ASM), which is included in the BURNOUT archive.
Basically, you have to open the device (filename=BRNDEV, fomode
0 or 2), and use function 40H (FWRITE) to write bytes to the
device using the returned handle.

Remember that you can use the R parameter (write an "@R#" to the
device) to restore a blanked screen and reset the BURNDEV
counter without performing any video output.


Reading from BRNDEV
-------------------
NOTE: you will only need to read this section if you are a
programmer and are interested in controlling the BURNOUT system
from your own programs.

Unfortunately, reading from BRNDEV is not quite as simple as
writing to it. There's no way that I can think of to do it from
the command line; you really need a program (I suppose you could
CTTY BRNDEV and then reboot when the machine went crazy [just
kidding, don't try it]). Also, there is a bug in DOS 2.x that
prevents you from using BASIC for this purpose (fixed under 3.0,
however). Under 3.0, the BASIC program would be:

10 OPEN "\\DEV\\BRNDEV" FOR OUTPUT AS #1
20 PRINT #1, "@#";
30 CLOSE 1
40 OPEN "\\DEV\\BRNDEV" FOR INPUT AS #1
50 BSTAT$ = INPUT$(19,1)
60 CLOSE 1
70 PRINT "BURNOUT status is "; BSTAT$

Note that we always write an "@#" to the device before reading
its status. The @'s function is described as above, to flush
any unfinished I/O from BRNDEV's buffers. The # is used for a
slightly different purpose, however. It still tells BRNDEV to
execute any pending commands (but there are none, because the @
just flushed them). The second purpose of # is the key one
here: it tells BRNDEV to prepare for a status request. When
BRNDEV sees the #, it examines its current status and puts the
data into a buffer, from which it will be retrieved when it gets
the request. Without the preparatory #, you'll get old data.

The significance of the "19" in the INPUT$ statement is that the
BRNDEV status report is 19 characters long.

Here's a C example:

{
FILE *burnout, *fopen();
static char command[] = "@#";
char status[30];

burnout = fopen("\\dev\\brndev","rw");
fwrite(command, 1, strlen(command), burnout);
fread (status, 1, 255, burnout);
fclose(burnout);
printf("BURNOUT status is %s\n", status);
}

Note that we requested 255 characters. DOS, in general, will
halt a device read when it encounters a carriage return from the
input stream (unless the device is in "raw" or binary mode).
BRNDEV makes a habit of sending a CR after the last byte of the
status report, so this will terminate the read automatically; no
need to worry about the true length of the report. BASIC,
however, will just keep reading until it accumulates the
requested number of characters, so you do have to be watchful
there. The same trick (requesting too many characters) will
also work in assembler programs (again, see BURNOUT.ASM).

Now, about that bug in DOS 2.x. It turns out that DOS will mess
up if you ever request a single byte from an installed character
device, which is what BRNDEV is. (Technically: EOF is set on
the device, and you will not be able to do any further reads
unless you mess with IOCTL and explicitly reset EOF.) Thus, the
following assembler code will NOT work under 2.x:

mov cx,19 ; Loop for 19 bytes
Label:
push cx ; Save loop count
mov ah,3FH ; Read from file
mov bx,BHandle ; BRNDEV file handle (from FOPEN)
mov cx,1 ; One byte at a time
mov dx,offset buf ; Where to put the data
int 21H ; Perform read
(do something with the byte)
pop cx ; Recover loop count
loop label ; Loop till 19 bytes read

The first byte will be read OK, but no further input will be
received. You MUST read at least 2 bytes at a time.

This bug can be overcome in assembler and C by simply requesting
the full status report in one read. However, it appears that
BASIC requests only one byte at a time, even if you use
something like INPUT$(19,n). Reading the second byte then
results in a READ PAST EOF error.


Tricks
------
NOTE: you will only need to read this section if you are a
programmer and are interested in controlling the BURNOUT system
from your own programs.

You can do neat stuff like waiting for the screen to burn out,
then turning it back on:

1 REM DEMO PROGRAM TO WAIT UNTIL SCREEN BLANKS
2 REM
10 OPEN "\DEV\BRNDEV" FOR OUTPUT AS #1
20 OPEN "\DEV\BRNDEV" FOR INPUT AS #2
30 WHILE NOT BURNED.OUT
40 PRINT #1,"@#";
50 A$ = INPUT$(19,2)
60 BURNED.OUT = (MID$(A$,13,1) = "B")
70 WEND
80 BEEP: PRINT "Burned out!"
90 CLOSE 1: CLOSE 2

The 13th character of the status report, "B", will appear in the
report only when the screen is blanked.

Also, your programs can cancel BURNOUT totally, if desired:

1 REM DEMO PROGRAM TO DISABLE BURNOUT
2 REM
10 OPEN "\DEV\BRNDEV" FOR OUTPUT AS #1
20 PRINT #1,"@0#";
30 CLOSE 1

(I am not a BASIC programmer, so if any of these demo BASIC
programs are dumb, someone tell me.)

Naturally, it would be possible (and friendly) to read in the
BURNOUT parameters, modify them while your program is running,
and restore the original parameters when you are done.

You can test whether or not BRNDEV is installed in a batch file
by using the IF EXIST function:

if exist \dev\brndev (do something)

If you use Seaware's Extended Batch Language, you can use this
test instead:

bat stateof \DEV\BRNDEV
bat if %r = 0 type BURNOUT IS INSTALLED | goto -A1
bat type BURNOUT IS NOT INSTALLED
bat -A1

Personal REXX users can try:

if dosdir('\dev\brndev') \= ''
then say 'BURNOUT is installed'



Incompatibilities and Problems
------------------------------
I am aware of only a few problems and interactions with other
programs. In order for BURNOUT to "see" keyboard and video
activity, active programs must use ROM BIOS (or DOS, which
itself generally uses BIOS) for their keyboard input and video
output. A few progams use neither; hence BURNOUT never sees
their activity, and the screen will be irrevocably blanked.
These programs are mostly word processors; two that I know of
are WordVision and some versions of XyWrite. Microsoft Windows
is another example of this. You must disable BURNOUT before
using any such system ("BURNOUT 0" will do the trick). Most
people do this in a batch or a PCED synonym:

(batch file)
burnout 0
wv
burnout 10000

(PCED)
ced syn wv 'burnout 0^*wv^burnout 10000'

There are also problems with some communications programs if you
use software blanking. If you are performing an extended length
file transfer the screen may blank during the transfer.
Software blanking takes a little time, and communications input
can be lost while it is being accomplished. This, of course,
messes up the transfer. And Continuous Clear is even worse.
The solution is to either use hardware blanking, or to disable
BURNOUT while transfers are taking place. You MAY be able to
get away with leaving BURNOUT enabled, but disabling Continuous
Clear (C-).

Note that the word "BRNDEV" becomes a reserved word to DOS. You
cannot name any file BRNDEV (or even BRNDEV.TXT, or whatever).
DOS won't let you do that. If you do succeed, you won't be able
to erase it. This is why the driver is stored in a file named
BURNDEV.SYS rather than BRNDEV.SYS.


Tick chart
----------
To save wear and tear on your calculator, here are some
approximate tick counts:

Minutes Count
------- -----
1 1100
2 2200
3 3275
4 4375
5 5450
6 6550
7 7650
8 8725
9 9825
10 10920
20 21850
30 32760
40 43680
50 54600
60 65520


Copyright/License/Warranty
--------------------------
This document and the program files BURNOUT.COM, BURNOUT.ASM,
and BURNDEV.SYS ("the software") are copyrighted by the author.
The copyright owner hereby licenses you to: use the software;
make as many copies of the program and documentation as you
wish; give such copies to anyone; and distribute the software
and documentation via electronic means. There is no charge for
any of the above.

However, you are specifically prohibited from charging, or
requesting donations, for any such copies, however made; and
from distributing the software and/or documentation with
commercial products without prior permission. An exception is
granted to not-for-profit user's groups, which are authorized to
charge a small fee (not to exceed $7) for materials, handling,
postage, and general overhead. NO FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION IS
AUTHORIZED TO CHARGE ANY AMOUNT FOR DISTRIBUTION OF COPIES OF
THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION, OR TO INCLUDE COPIES OF THE
SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION WITH SALES OF THEIR OWN PRODUCTS.

THIS INCLUDES A SPECIFIC PROHIBITION AGAINST FOR-PROFIT
ORGANIZATIONS DISTRIBUTING THE SOFTWARE, EITHER ALONE OR WITH
OTHER SOFTWARE, AND CHARGING A "HANDLING" OR "MATERIALS" FEE OR
ANY OTHER SUCH FEE FOR THE DISTRIBUTION. NO FOR-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION IS AUTHORIZED TO INCLUDE THE SOFTWARE ON ANY MEDIA
FOR WHICH MONEY IS CHARGED. PERIOD.

No copy of the software may be distributed or given away without
this document; and this notice must not be removed.

There is no warranty of any kind, and the copyright owner is not
liable for damages of any kind. By using this free software,
you agree to this and you specifically acknowledge that you are
aware that BURNDEV and similar programs can, in some modes,
cause physical damage to some brands of display adapters and/or
video monitors.

The software and documentation are:

Copyright (C) 1985,1986,1987,1989 by

Christopher J. Dunford
The Cove Software Group
P.O. Box 1072
Columbia, Maryland 21044

(301) 992-9371
CompuServe 76703,2002 [IBMNET]


  3 Responses to “Category : Display Utilities
Archive   : BRNOT231.ZIP
Filename : BURNOUT.DOC

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