alex@bilver.UUCP (Alex Matulich) (02/16/90)
For the past couple of years I have been writing C programs for IBM
compatibles using either Microsoft C or Turbo C. I try to make my software
look and feel as professional as possible, but during my endeavors I have
run into some programming problems that I can't figure out, and none of
the IBM-specific C programming books I have read are any help. Commercial
programs do these things, so why can't I?
Specifically:
1) Is there a faster way to display character strings than using puts()
or printf() without resorting to assembly language?
2) If I have a text screen set up like I want it, is it possible to save
it away somehow so I can display it anytime later by dumping it back
into the video memory? If so, how do I find the address and length
of a video text display?
3) How do I display inverse, boldface, or multicolored text without
resorting to using ANSI.SYS?
4) The critical error handler gets invoked when the printer needs more
paper. How do I tell if the printer is offline? The computer hung up
last time I tried using fopen() to get a file handle to a printer that
was powered off.
5) If a user of my software has a serial printer, how do I set up the
serial port parameters (baud rate, xon/xoff, databits, stopbits, etc)?
6) I expected to find a function somewhere in the standard library that
would read the contents of a disk directory into a string array. Did
I miss it? I have heard the Lattice compiler has such a function, but
I don't have that compiler. If no such function exists, how is it done?
7) If my PATH environment variable is set up so that I can run one of my
programs from a directory different than the one containing my program,
how it possible for my program to determine the directory IT started
from? Or does that information have to be hard-coded in my program?
If you know the answers to at least one of the above questions, or if you
know the title of a helpful book I can look up, PLEASE e-mail me a reply.
Especially if you have examples of code that you use, I'd like to hear from
you. I'll summarize the replies I receive. Thanks...
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