[comp.sys.ibm.pc] 132 columns by 50 lines

kevins@CIE.UOREGON.EDU (01/02/90)

This is a simple question, but since I don't yet have a VGA
(but will very soon), can I set up my screen to display
text in 132 columns and 50 lines long?
 
Anyone with a understanding of this wanna comment?
 
-Kevins

leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) (01/02/90)

kevins@CIE.UOREGON.EDU writes:

>This is a simple question, but since I don't yet have a VGA
>(but will very soon), can I set up my screen to display
>text in 132 columns and 50 lines long?

Since the maximum resolution of a _VGA_ screen is 720x480 that gives a
5x9 character matrix. Not what *I* would call a readable font. To get
132 columns you either need some sort of superVGA card or one of the
monochrome cards that supports 132 column. We have some from Everex 
that work well.

-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short

poffen@molehill (Russ Poffenberger) (01/04/90)

In article <1881@bucket.UUCP> leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes:
>kevins@CIE.UOREGON.EDU writes:
>
>>This is a simple question, but since I don't yet have a VGA
>>(but will very soon), can I set up my screen to display
>>text in 132 columns and 50 lines long?
>
>Since the maximum resolution of a _VGA_ screen is 720x480 that gives a
>5x9 character matrix. Not what *I* would call a readable font. To get
>132 columns you either need some sort of superVGA card or one of the
>monochrome cards that supports 132 column. We have some from Everex 
>that work well.
>

Most third-party VGA cards also offer 800 X 600 16 color resolution. This can
be done with a 256K card and could support 132 X 50 text.

Note however that this is not a VGA standard, but a sort of defacto standard
that most VGA cards offer. As such, you will need a utility provided by the
card manufacturer to get these modes.

Russ Poffenberger               DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com
Schlumberger Technologies       UUCP:   {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen
1601 Technology Drive		CIS:	72401,276
San Jose, Ca. 95110
(408)437-5254

mvolo@uncecs.edu (Michael R. Volow) (01/05/90)

Standard text modes for VGA appear to include 80x25 and 80x50. Extended
text modes are usually different from board to board depending on
the particular board's firmware.
Paradise boards 132x25, 132x43
Video 7  100x60, 132x28, not sure of what others
Tecmar VGA had a great variety of extended text modes

M Volow, VA Medical Center, Durham, NC 27705
mvolo@ecsvax.UUCP           919 286 0411

dhw@itivax.iti.org (David H. West) (01/05/90)

In article <1881@bucket.UUCP> leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes:
|kevins@CIE.UOREGON.EDU writes:
|>[...] can I set up my screen to display
|>text in 132 columns and 50 lines long?
|
|[...] you either need some sort of superVGA card or one of the
|monochrome cards that supports 132 column. We have some from Everex 
|that work well.

Have you found a way to get DOS to recognise the extra lines?  I
have no problem establishing the smaller-font text modes using VPMODE, 
but DOS still insists on scrolling at the 25th line, though this is
no longer at the bottom of the screen.

-David West       dhw@iti.org

CUMMINGS@S55.Prime.COM (01/05/90)

/* Written  9:59 am  Jan  5, 1990 by dhw@itivax.UUCP in S55:comp.sys.ibm.pc */

> Have you found a way to get DOS to recognise the extra lines?  I
> have no problem establishing the smaller-font text modes using VPMODE,
> but DOS still insists on scrolling at the 25th line, though this is
> no longer at the bottom of the screen.

> -David West       dhw@iti.org

No, No, No, NO, NO!  its your ANSI.SYS driver that insists on scrolling at
the 25th line.  I replaced mine with NANSI.SYS (and then NNANSI.SYS) and
80x43 works right on my EGA (as does 132x44).  The BIOS contains (if its
100% compatible) all the right screen information to correctly scroll your
screen in segment 40.  It's the software that ASSUMES your text mode is 80x25
that is usally the problem.
============================================================================
Kevin J. Cummings                       Prime Computer Inc.
20 Briarwood Road                       500 Old Connecticut Path
Framingham, Mass.                       Framingham, Mass.

InterNet:  CUMMINGS@S55.Prime.COM
CSNet:     CUMMINGS%S55.Prime.COM@RELAY.CS.NET
UUCP:      {uunet, csnet-relay}!S55.Prime.COM!CUMMINGS

Std. Disclaimer: "Mr. McKittrick, after careful consideration, I've come
                  to the conclusion that your new defense system SUCKS..."
============================================================================

toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) (01/06/90)

In article <4731@itivax.iti.org> dhw@itivax.UUCP (David H. West) writes:
>Have you found a way to get DOS to recognise the extra lines?  I
>have no problem establishing the smaller-font text modes using VPMODE, 
>but DOS still insists on scrolling at the 25th line, though this is
>no longer at the bottom of the screen.

You need a better ANSI.SYS driver. I heartily suggest using my NNANSI.SYS,
soon to appear (?) on comp.binaries.ibm.pc.

Tom Almy
toma@telgvs.labs.tek.com
Standard Disclaimers Apply

aru@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Sriram Ramkrishna) (01/07/90)

In article <6610@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) writes:
>In article <4731@itivax.iti.org> dhw@itivax.UUCP (David H. West) writes:
>>Have you found a way to get DOS to recognise the extra lines?  I
>You need a better ANSI.SYS driver. I heartily suggest using my NNANSI.SYS,
>soon to appear (?) on comp.binaries.ibm.pc.

NNANSI.SYS has some problems, at least for me it does for me.  After a certain
amount of lines, NNANSI stops printing characters to the screen and after
a couple more lines start to print again.  Usually a CLS will bring back to
normal but until they fix the problem I am sticking with NANSI.SYS.

	Sri

leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) (01/07/90)

dhw@itivax.iti.org (David H. West) writes:

>Have you found a way to get DOS to recognise the extra lines?  I
>have no problem establishing the smaller-font text modes using VPMODE, 
>but DOS still insists on scrolling at the 25th line, though this is
>no longer at the bottom of the screen.

Actually, the problem is comman.com and/or ANSI.SYS. Get a copy of
4dos and you can use any screen size that your card supports. If
you need ANSI I'd recommend ANSI.COM from PC Magazine. It's 
uninstallable without a reboot, and can be set to disallow key
redefines.
-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short

chasm@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Charles Marslett) (01/07/90)

In article <9001012012.AA20667@cie.uoregon.edu>, kevins@CIE.UOREGON.EDU writes:
> This is a simple question, but since I don't yet have a VGA
> (but will very soon), can I set up my screen to display
> text in 132 columns and 50 lines long?
>  
> Anyone with a understanding of this wanna comment?

I always want to comment (even without any understanding of the issue!).

Many of the VGAs that support 800x600 also support 132 column modes -- some
only on multisync monitors, and a few even on fixed frequency monitors (the
fixed frequency support requires a dot clock > 40 MHz, so these usually
support 1024x768, unless they use a video chip that can't handle 512K of
video buffer RAM).

STB (the company I work for) and most of the other vendors of Tseng Labs based
cards use the Tseng Labs EVGA set of video modes for 132x25, 132x28 and 132x44.
To get 132x50 you need to write your own register values.  On the other hand,
C&T has a standard 132x50 mode that (I believe, but it's been a while since I
updated the 132 column code ;^) STB supports on both its C&T based and Tseng
based cards -- and probably on the AutoVGA (Cirrus based) as well.

Your best bet is to check the documentation on the card first and just watch
for the phrase "132-column text on fixed frequency monitors" and the presence
of a mode number for a 132x50 text mode.
>  
> -Kevins

Charles Marslett
STB Systems, Inc. <-- apply all standard disclaimers
chasm@attctc.dallas.tx.us

jfernand@m.cs.uiuc.edu (01/08/90)

/* Written 10:01 am  Jan  6, 1990 by aru@mentor.cc.purdue.edu in m.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.ibm.pc */
In article <6610@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) writes:
>In article <4731@itivax.iti.org> dhw@itivax.UUCP (David H. West) writes:
>>Have you found a way to get DOS to recognise the extra lines?  I
>You need a better ANSI.SYS driver. I heartily suggest using my NNANSI.SYS,
>soon to appear (?) on comp.binaries.ibm.pc.

NNANSI.SYS has some problems, at least for me it does for me.  After a certain
amount of lines, NNANSI stops printing characters to the screen and after
a couple more lines start to print again.  Usually a CLS will bring back to
normal but until they fix the problem I am sticking with NANSI.SYS.

	Sri
/* End of text from m.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.ibm.pc */

jmerrill@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Jason Merrill) (01/09/90)

In article <10874@attctc.Dallas.TX.US> chasm@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Charles Marslett) writes:
>To get 132x50 you need to write your own register values.

I have a Paradise clone which only supports up to 132x43.  However, I have 
been able to trick it into displaying 50 lines with the Norton Control Center
(NCC /50)...

--
jmerrill@jarthur.claremont.edu
"Rotating knives, yes."

chasm@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Charles Marslett) (01/09/90)

In article <4731@itivax.iti.org>, dhw@itivax.iti.org (David H. West) writes:
> In article <1881@bucket.UUCP> leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes:
> |kevins@CIE.UOREGON.EDU writes:
> |>[...] can I set up my screen to display
> |>text in 132 columns and 50 lines long?
> |
> |[...] you either need some sort of superVGA card or one of the
> |monochrome cards that supports 132 column. We have some from Everex 
> |that work well.
> 
> Have you found a way to get DOS to recognise the extra lines?  I
> have no problem establishing the smaller-font text modes using VPMODE, 
> but DOS still insists on scrolling at the 25th line, though this is
> no longer at the bottom of the screen.

The problem here lies in ANSI.SYS nearly all the time (a few versions of
DOS 3.x also mess it up, but most are functionally correct).  If you have
ANSI.SYS installed, remove that line from your CONFIG.SYS, and see if that
fixes the problem.

After finding the problem, you may have a substitute ANSI.SYS from the VGA
card vendor (on the utility disk that, hopefully, came with it), or you can
patch ANSI.SYS and/or DOS.  I have done so (not much fun) -- mostly you have
to scan the files for compares of DH with 0x18 or 0x19 and then look at the
disassembled code around them to find the one that needs to be changed.

I have had to just skip some misguided optimization in the two cases I patched
(a Compaq ANSI.SYS and MSDOS 3.2 if I remember correctly).

> -David West       dhw@iti.org

Charles Marslett
chasm@attctc.dallas.tx.us

akcs.amparsonjr@vpnet.UUCP (Anthony M. Parson, Jr.) (01/19/90)

I've used the Paradise VGA Pro in 132 x 25, and 132 x 43, but very little
seems to support these.  You can use it to TYPE, DIR, etc in black and white
but other than straight DOS, I've not been able to use this mode.  It is
handy to view the .lst files from masm.  Most software supports 80 columns
and 25, 43 or 50 lines.  In 50 line mode, however, usually the tails of
descender characters are missing, making things a bit hard to read.  Many
programs support these modes, but you have to be in these modes when the
program is fired up (browse, from PC Mag, etc)

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