NAME
LINES 0.1, switch to 80x25, 80x43, or 80x50 text mode in DOS.
SYNOPSIS
lines <option>
DESCRIPTION
LINES is a utility that switches to 80x25, 80x43, or 80x50 text
mode. Even though the same thing can be done with
"MODE CON LINES=", I did not write LINES in vain:
1) At the speed of floppies, a 487-byte .COM starts running
immediately after you press <ENTER>, but there's a
noticeable delay for MODE.COM, which is about a dozen or
two kilobytes (depending on which one you use).
2) If the only reason you have MODE.COM on a boot diskette is
to use 43 or 50-line mode, you could use LINES instead
to save a couple dozen kilobytes.
3) The MODE.COM included with MS-DOS 6.22 does not let you
use the "CON LINES=" argument unless ANSI.SYS is loaded,
but you may not want to load it to save memory.
4) Programmers (including me) can read the source to
learn/remember how to *properly* return from graphics mode
to text mode. If the screen was 80x43 when the program was
invoked, it should be restored to 80x43 when it exits, even
though it takes a little more work. Hint: the byte at 40:84
has the number of EGA text rows - 1.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
* An IBM PC or compatible
* Any version of DOS
* A VGA adapter
OPTIONS
/? Show copyright and usage
25 Switch to 80x25
43 Switch to 80x43
50 Switch to 80x50
BUGS
Even though 80x43 is supported by the EGA, LINES requires VGA.
Please send any feedback and bug reports to <
[email protected]>.
HOME PAGE
gopher://sdf.org/1/users/sethsimon/lines
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2018, Seth Simon (
[email protected]).
LINES comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software
covered by GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE 3, and you are welcome
to redistribute it under certain conditions. See
http://www.gnu.org or COPYING file for details.
