Re: [fpc-pascal] Accessing ROM BIOS Font in Linux.
On Sat, 2008-01-19 at 13:19 +, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote: Anthony W.Henry wrote: I really don't have to worry about the few Kilobytes it will add to the program file :). Anyone know any good GPL'd or Public Domain bit fonts ? Remember that you can easily preprocess it with RLL. I'd expect a bitmap fount to be very compressible. [snip] One thing I'd add is that using Delphi it's possible (although not trivial) to embed a .fon as a resource in an executable. I don't know the extent to which this can be done using (in particular) Lazarus on Windows or on Linux. I imagine the easiest way is bin2obj and just make it a constant array in the program. :)That is a useful trick and much easier then resources. (I most recently used it to make a bitmap CGI hit counter. the Digit jpg's where all stored as Const arrays of byte and the CGI recursively called itself. Anthony ___ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
Re: [fpc-pascal] ncurses extra package
On Fri, 2008-01-18 at 12:02 +0100, Guillermo Martínez Jiménez wrote: Hello everybody. Recently I asked myself if Free Pascal has support for ncurses and I've found it as an extra package. There is also an ncrt unit. If all your looking at is the ability to run the program on different terminals this might be the ticket. This unit implements all the crt functionality but uses ncurses as the back end. Anthony I've take a peek at the ncurses.pp file and I've found it uses a lot of external functions. That means this package will not compile on platforms that haven't a previous ncurses implementation (NDS, GP32/2X, etc.). I think if the ncurses package uses the RTL (Crt, keyboard, gpm, etc.) it would be more portable, if the platform can't support Crt, keyboard, mouse, etc. they can be emulated. Then I decided to write my own ncurses.pp alternative using only the RTL. I will not claim official declaration or support, and may be it will not be so complete and successful as Michael Van Canneyt's implementation, but any comment or advice will be welcome. See you, Guillermo Ñuño Martínez ___ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal ___ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
Re: [fpc-pascal] Accessing ROM BIOS Font in Linux.
On Thu, 2008-01-17 at 11:47 +0100, Michael Van Canneyt wrote: On Thu, 17 Jan 2008, Vinzent Hoefler wrote: On Thursday 17 January 2008 01:27, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The question. Is this font accessible from linux; do I have to be root ? Yes. Yes. /dev/mem should be the raw memory device (where even the BIOS image can be read from), but this device which is only accessible to root. But you cannot use this font to write to the screen directly ? Actually, I read the font and drew to the screen. :) I first used this to make Banners in Text Mode out of the Letters themselves. (A was made out of A, B or B's etc...). At one time I almost completed a set of 256 color 2d graphics primitives in Pascal and assembler. I used the BIOS font in my OutTextXY procedure. I just remembered where I had some of the code this morning. http://home.comcast.net/~anthonyh63/mysoftware/vesa.zip These routines are not complete and are mostly useless today. (Real mode DOS.) The routines in question are in WRITETXT.SRC which was used as an include file rather then a unit. Include files were a habit I picked up from programming with Turbo 3.0 even though this work was done under Turbo 6. :) Upon rereading the source I had forgotten you also had to make a BIOS call to get the address though it returned an identical address for most BIOS's. (If memory serves). Thanks to everyone who answered. I'm checking the Linux newsgroups now to see if there is a way to hack a BIOS call under Linux but I don't have a lot of hope :) (rightfully so, people shouldn't make direct BIOS calls in an application now.) I'll probably end up linking a binary font into the program. Anthony. Michael. ___ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal ___ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
Re: [fpc-pascal] Accessing ROM BIOS Font in Linux.
On Thu, 2008-01-17 at 15:32 +, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote: Michael Van Canneyt wrote: The question. Is this font accessible from linux; do I have to be root ?How do I make the 16 bit segment/offset address into a 32 bit pointer to access these fonts ? This font is not accessible. Linux does not allow direct hardware access unless you write a device driver. What exactly are you trying to do- read the pixels that make up the BIOS fount so that you can plot them as blocks in a text- or graphics-mode session? Yes... I've done this in the past... (late 80's early 90's :) I'd have thought it would be better practice to store a fount file as constant data (possibly a resource) inside the program- there's plenty of fount editors etc. available from DOS days. Your completely right. I still think like a DOS programmer sometimes. (Keeping program code small..). I was actually thinking of using it as fall back font. (Font files missing). It was going to be graphics mode programming. I think if I follow through with this project then converting a Bit Font to an Array Constant is really the way to go. I really don't have to worry about the few Kilobytes it will add to the program file :). Anyone know any good GPL'd or Public Domain bit fonts ? Anthony ___ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
