Re: C in linux - bios calls, graphics

[Pichai Asokan <pasokan@xxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 1 Feb 2001, Binand Raj S. wrote:

> Sukrit K Mehra forced the electrons to say:
> > i know this has been going on recently but tell me .. tools like
> > setup in linux, what languages are they developed in?
> 
> The tool setup that comes with RedHat Linux, IIRC, is written in C.
> 
> > 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. 
> 
> Absolutely no idea about graphics.h. But your opinion that curses is
> clumsy might not find many takers. There are a host of extremely popular
> console tools that link to curses - mutt, pine, slrn, tin, lynx, vim,
> emacs... just try convincing the users of these programs that curses
> sucks. :-)
Exactly. in particular I would like to see our friend arguing
with a emacs user and a vim guru. (for emacs, user = guru).
 
> 
> > Also, int86() in dos... these are bios calls i guess.. i did some readying up
> > and i could find this. Please help with this too. 
> > <a tutorial, a link to someplace, will be nice. >
> 
> AFAICT, Linux does not support bios calls from user level programs.
> There are system calls and ioctl's that implement bios calls. 
> 
> If you tell use what you want to achieve, then maybe we can help you.
I second that.
Also look up newt and dialog. In addition there are more 
libraries built on top of curses - panel, menu and forms that
ease a lot of coding by providing higher level 'widgets'.
There is cdk - curses development kit with a similar higher
level abstractions built on top of curses.
It is difficult to imagine a text mode app that finds all
these insufficient.
P Asokan