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- DVdevload (c) Copyright 1991 Ralf Brown
- v1.00 8/11/91
-
- What is it?
- -----------
- DVdevload and its support program DVeop allow you to load device drivers
- in a DESQview window. Unlike Quarterdeck's DEVICE.COM, DVdevload actually
- links the driver into the device driver chain, thus permitting the use
- of drivers which do not hook any interrupts. With DEVICE.COM, if the
- driver does not hook any interrupts, it is completely inactive because
- DEVICE.COM does not hook it into the driver chain.
-
-
- DISCLAIMER
- ----------
- This product is distributed AS IS, with no warranties, express or implied.
- The author disclaims all liability for any damages (incidental or
- consequential) caused by the use or misuse of this product. Sole
- responsibility for determining its fitness for use rests with the user.
-
-
- INSTALLATION
- ------------
- DVdevload is quite simple to use. Before starting DESQview, the DVeop
- driver must have been installed, so you will need to add a line to either
- AUTOEXEC.BAT or your DESQview startup batch file to run DVeop without
- arguments, i.e.
-
- DVEOP
- or
- DVEOP-S
-
- DVeop will automatically load itself into high memory using either XMS or
- DOS 5 upper memory blocks; LOADHIGH or its equivalent is completely
- superfluous and would in fact *increase* DVeop's memory requirements.
- DVEOP.COM and DVEOP-S.COM are the same except that DVEOP-S.COM only supports
- 3 simultaneous windows using DVDEVLOD, while DVEOP.COM supports 16. This
- results in an 80-byte savings in the resident portion (272 bytes versus
- 352 bytes when loaded high).
-
- Once DVEOP has been run, you can now start DESQview. Within each window
- that requires a particular driver, you need to run DVDEVLOD.COM. Thus,
- you would have a line like
-
- DVDEVLOD C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS
-
- in that window's startup batch file. If the driver requires any parameters,
- you simply place them after the driver's name, as in
-
- DVDEVLOD C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS /L
-
- You may run DVDEVLOD multiple times within a single window to load multiple
- drivers.
-
-
- REQUIREMENTS
- ------------
- DVdevlod requires DOS 2.0 or higher and DESQview 2.26 or higher. Once
- installed, it uses 192 bytes in addition to the memory used by the driver
- itself.
-
-
- LIMITATIONS
- -----------
- This version of DVdevload is not able to load block devices inside a DESQview
- window. If the driver provides one or more drive letters, it must be loaded
- in CONFIG.SYS. While technically possible, loading block devices is far more
- complex than character devices, because several DOS-internal data structures
- must be modified on each task switch. A future version will remove this
- limitation.
-
- Further, DVdevload can not be used in windows for which the protection level
- (second "Change a Program" screen) has been set to either 2 or 3, as DESQview
- will complain about a protection violation each time DVdevload tries to
- patch the device chain. There are no problems with protection levels 0 or 1.
- I do not believe that a workaround for this problem exists, because DVdevload
- must inherently mess with DOS's internals, which is considered outside the
- program's address space at higher protection levels.
-
-
- AVAILABILITY
- ------------
- The newest version is available in the following places:
-
- On the Internet, for anonymous FTP from CS.CMU.EDU [128.2.222.173] in
- directory /afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/ralf/pub/DESQview. You must change
- directory there with a single command before attempting to retrieve
- any files, due to the way the security mechanism works. If your site
- is connected to AFS, you can simply change directory to the above
- directory and perform a normal Unix/VMS/whatever file copy.
-
- On FIDOnet, for download and File Request from SoundingBoard, 1:129/26,
- 1-412-621-4604, 2400/9600 HST. The file is kept in file area 8.
-
-
- AUTHOR
- ------
- Ralf Brown
- School of Computer Science
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
-
- Internet: ralf+@cs.cmu.edu
- CIS: >INTERNET:ralf+@cs.cmu.edu
- FIDO: Ralf Brown 1:129/26.1
-
-