[Subject Prev][Subject Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Subject Index][Thread Index]

Re: C in linux - bios calls, graphics



On Thursday 01 February 2001 13:54, you wrote:
> The tool setup that comes with RedHat Linux, IIRC, is written in C.

Oh I thought it was just a wrapper like linuxconf. Anyway that's a good tool.

>
> > i want the basic functionality of graphics.h in dos. curses is clumsy,
> > imho. And i don't fully understand if vga.h is supposed to do the trick.
> > if yes, then please guide me to some tutorial/how-to/faq/etc on the web.
> > I have the sgva documentation but it is cryptic.
>
Curses.h is no answer to graphics.h. You need to use svgalib or SDL if you 
find svgalib insufficient.

I have used graphics.h and a start from 'info svgalib' gives you enough to 
use. Then you can search for online documentation. Never used SDL though but 
have heard often about it.

> AFAICT, Linux does not support bios calls from user level programs.
> There are system calls and ioctl's that implement bios calls.

Same here. Write a device driver doing the same thing and read and write to 
that file. It's a cleaner interface.

If you are looking to manipulate graphics at low level, you may not need it 
after you have used svgalib etc.

Every other standard interrupt call has to have  a device associated with it. 
So once again, you are at read and write...

 Bye
  Shridhar