[net.micro.pc] NANSI.SYS and Turbo Prolog

luis@oakhill.UUCP (Luis Basto) (08/03/86)

I started using NANSI.SYS recently and was very satisfied with its faster
screen scrolling. I have not explored most of the other features yet.
However, there seems to be a problem when using it with Turbo Prolog.
Everything works normally except on Quit. Then the screen blanks completely
until a warm boot (Ctrl-Shift-Del) is used. Any clues as to what might be
causing this?  Thanks.

Luis Basto

luis@oakhill.UUCP (Luis Basto) (08/14/86)

Keywords:NANSI.SYS, Turbo Prolog


Summary of responses:

> > I started using NANSI.SYS recently and was very satisfied with its faster
> > screen scrolling. ...
> > However, there seems to be a problem when using it with Turbo Prolog.
> > Everything works normally except on Quit. Then the screen blanks completely
>
>
>From: cameron@rsch.wisc.edu (Andrew J Cameron III)
>
>I use the following batch file (called "TP.BAT") as a workaround:
>
>        PROLOG %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
>        MODE CO80
>        EXIT
>
>
>From im4u!ut-sally!seismo!rochester!ur-cvsvax!srs!dan
>
>The Feb 26 (2.2) version of Nansi has a really stupid bug that causes
>color boards' palettes to go crazy when the background color is set.
>Although I doubt this could be the Turbo problem, here is the fix:
>using DEBUG, verify that the opcode at offset 851 hex is a VIDEO BIOS call
>(I am typing this from memory, as I have no PC available to me here yet),
>then patch it to be two NOP's.
>        copy nansi.sys nansi.pat
>        debug nansi.pat
>        -u 851 l 1
>        xxxx:0851 CD10  INT 10
>        -a 851
>        nop
>        nop
>
>       -w
>        -q
>(Don't forget the blank line; that quits assembly mode.
> Don't type the -'s; those are the DEBUG prompt.)
>Then make a test boot disk using the new file, nansi.pat, instead of nansi.sys
>to verify the change.
>
>This bug will be gone in a release to be posted in the next few weeks.
>- Dan Kegel (the author of nansi)
>
>
>From im4u!ut-sally!seismo!rochester!ur-tut!tfra Mon Aug 11 12:16:11 1986
>
>Try typing "mode bw80" after exiting prolog.  It seems to get confused
>as to what mode it should return to (I have the same problem on an AT&T 6300).
>
>- Tom Frauenhofer
>

Thanks to everybody who responded. Because this problem may be applicable
to other programs too I thought this could be of general interest to all.

The basic premise is that Turbo Prolog (and other programs exhibiting
similar behaviour) on exit sets the screen up as black text on a black
background. This looks like the system hanged but it would still accept
commands. I use a monochrome monitor so the MODE CO80 command obviously
won't work. However, MODE BW80 doesn't seem to have any effect either.

The DEBUG sequence that Dan recommended (after adjusting for appropriate
DOS addresses) also does not work on my clone. What I did was combine several
of these suggestions and came up with one that finally worked.

	    PROLOG %1 %2 %3
	    CLS
	    EXIT

Putting these three lines in a TP.BAT file and invoking TP seems to work
fine now. I hope this will help others in similar circumstannces.


					-------------------------
						Luis Basto