jcjjl@ihlpg.UUCP (08/17/87)
Auxiliary console With the command CTTY it is possible to switch to an auxiliary console. All programs under MS-DOS can be run than via this aux-console. Programs not using the MS-DOS keyboard-vector cause the aux-connection to be broken (e.g. GW-BASIC, DBASE3). Exiting these programs and entering MS-DOS again restores the connection. Who knows what to do to influence the "stubborn" programs to listen to the auxiliary console? !ihnp4!hvlpb!gvdpijl
johnl@ima.ISC.COM (John R. Levine) (08/19/87)
In article <3669@ihlpg.ATT.COM> jcjjl@ihlpg.ATT.COM (J.J.M. Louvenberg) writes: >With the command CTTY it is possible to switch to an auxiliary console. >All programs under MS-DOS can be run than via this aux-console. >Programs not using the MS-DOS keyboard-vector cause the aux-connection >to be broken (e.g. GW-BASIC, DBASE3). >Who knows what to do to influence the "stubborn" programs to listen >to the auxiliary console? Rewrite them, in general. There are three ways to to screen I/O on a PC - through DOS, through the BIOS, or directly. CTTY only affects the DOS calls. I suppose you could write something that would intercept the BIOS calls and aim them at the serial port, but most programs that use them, such as Basic, assume that they can directly move to any place on the screen and write a character, so you'd have to fake that. You'd also have to come up with conventions for the function keys, ALT keys, etc. Many popular programs write directly to the screen hardware so they can update the screen quickly; there's not much you can do about them. You might look at programs like Carbon Copy which do their best to give you a remote PC console by intercepting all the calls they can, and periodically reading the screen and sending updates to the remote terminal. They're a little tricky to set up, but once you do they work adequately though slowly. -- John R. Levine, Cambridge MA, +1 617 492 3869 { ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something The Iran-Contra affair: None of this would have happened if Ronald Reagan were still alive.