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The Affordable Alternative Library for BASIC =------------------------------------------= Version 1.0 AABAS Copyright (c) 1992 Thomas G. Hanlin III This is a library for QuickBASIC 4.0 - 4.5. It provides convenient access to BIOS and DOS calls, covering display and keyboard, mouse, joystick, disk, printer, equipment info, XMS memory, and more. There are capabilities here you won't find in any commercial library. AABAS is copyrighted and may be distributed only according to the following rule: All AABAS files must be distributed together as a unit. No files may be left out, added, or altered. You may recognize my name-- I've written more than a few libraries, ranging from $25-$35 shareware products to $200 commercial libraries. I've abandoned the commercial arena, though, since I consider its prices obscene. Lately it's occurred to me that $25-$35 may also be a major outlay for some people. There have been times I haven't be able to handle that much, anyway. Enter AABAS: an affordable library which nonetheless provides many useful functions. You can register AABAS for only $8. Registration entitles you to the latest version of AABAS, complete with full source code in assembly language, plus a sampler containing other free and shareware products for QuickBASIC. See REGISTER.TXT for details. You use this library at your own risk. It has been tested by me on my own computer, but I will not assume any responsibility for any problems which AABAS may cause you. If you do encounter a problem, please let me know about it, and I will do my best to verify and repair the error. Using AABAS The .QLB that comes with AABAS was created with QuickBASIC 4.5. If you have one of the QuickBASIC 4.0 releases, you can still use AABAS, but you must create a new .QLB file. The following will do the trick: LINK AABAS.LIB/Q,AABAS.QLB,NUL,BQLB40 For some later releases of QB 4.0, you will need to specify BQLB41 instead of BQLB40. Check your QB files to see whether you have BQLB40.LIB or BQLB41.LIB. To use AABAS routines, you must include the AABAS.BI file in your program. You can do this directly with a text editor, if you like. A simpler approach would be to place this line at the start of your program: REM $INCLUDE: 'AABAS.BI' If you compile from the command line, using BC, you must specify AABAS as a library when you LINK the program. You can let LINK prompt you for what it wants or type in the entire set of parameters at once, like this: LINK program/EX,,NUL,AABAS If you compile using the QuickBASIC environment, you must specify AABAS as a library when you load QB: QB program /L AABAS In this case, the program name is optional. Assorted Notes These routines are broken into two rough categories: BIOS and DOS. I've included a few sets of routines in the BIOS category which perhaps don't entirely belong there: mouse and XMS memory routines. Still, close enough. The routines in the BIOS category will work on just about any machine, with the exception of a few of the odder and older machines. How old is older? Say, before 1984. In other words, compatibility is not much of a problem. The DOS routines will work on any machine that runs DOS 2.11 or later releases. Compatibility is no problem at all there. The source code for AABAS is entirely in MASM-compatible assembly language. They require negligible space in your program, and may even reduce the size of your program if their use allows BASIC to remove some of its own support code from the program. The AABAS library is based directly on BIOS and DOS routines, with no attempt to provide anything more fancy. The library is intended to be small, convenient, and inexpensive-- just the thing for folks learning about libraries for the first time or on a budget. You will find AABAS quite powerful within these limitations. If you find you need something a little more comprehensive, you may wish to examine my BasWiz and PBClone libraries. The shareware versions of these will be sent to you if you register AABAS, or you can find them at your local BBS. Reference List BiosAlt% return whether an ALT key is pressed BiosBaseMem% return amount of base memory installed BiosCaps% return whether CapsLock is on BiosCheckKey$ get key from keyboard buffer, if any BiosChkPrt% check a printer BiosComPorts% return the number of com (serial) ports BiosCtrl% return whether a CTRL key is pressed BiosELAlt% return whether Left ALT is pressed BiosELCtrl% return whether Left CTRL is pressed BiosERAlt% return whether Right ALT is pressed BiosERCtrl% return whether Right CTRL is pressed BiosESysRq% return whether SysRq is pressed BiosFloppies% return the number of floppy drives BiosGetKeyW$ get a key from the keyboard (wait if need be) BiosGetVideo get the screen width, mode, and active page BiosInitPrt% initialize a printer BiosIns% return whether Insert is on BiosJoyPosn get joystick positions BiosJoyPress get joystick buttons BiosKeyIn% stuff a key into the keyboard buffer BiosKeyRep change the key repeat rate BiosLShift% return whether Left SHIFT is pressed BiosMHide hide the mouse cursor BiosMInit% initialize the mouse, return # of buttons BiosMLButton% return whether left mouse button is pressed BiosMLClick return left clicks & position at last click BiosMLocate set the mouse cursor position BiosMLRelease return left releases & pos'n at last release BiosMMButton% return whether middle mouse button is pressed BiosMMClick return middle clicks & pos'n at last click BiosMMRelease return middle releases & pos'n at last release BiosMRButton% return whether right mouse button is pressed BiosMRClick return right clicks & position at last click BiosMRRelease return right releases & pos'n at last release BiosMShow make the mouse cursor visible BiosMWhereX% return the X coordinate of the mouse cursor BiosMWhereY% return the Y coordinate of the mouse cursor BiosMWindow set the allowed range for the mouse cursor BiosNum% return whether NumLock is on BiosPrintCh% print a character (to a printer) BiosPrtPorts% return the number of printer (parallel) ports BiosPrtSc print the screen on the default printer BiosRShift% return whether Right SHIFT is pressed BiosScroll% return whether ScrollLock is on BiosScrollDn scroll an area of the screen down BiosScrollUp scroll an area of the screen up Reference List BiosXClose close an area of XMS BiosXExists% see if XMS memory is available BiosXLFree& return the largest block of XMS memory BiosXOpen open an area of XMS for use BiosXRead get information from XMS memory BiosXResize resize an area of XMS memory BiosXTFree& return the amount of available XMS memory BiosXVer% get the XMS driver version BiosXWrite put information into XMS memory DosBreak% return Break level DosBreakOff minimize Break checking DosBreakOn maximize Break checking DosDiskInfo get space & capacity info about a disk drive DosGetDay$ get the current day name DosGetDir$ get a default disk directory DosGetDisk$ get the default disk drive DosGetFAttr% get the attributes of a file DosGetKey$ get a key from standard input DosGetKeyW$ get a key from standard input (wait if needed) DosGetVersion% get the DOS version DosSetDisk% set the default disk drive DosSetFAttr% set the attributes of a file DosVerify% return disk write verification status DosVerifyOff turn off disk write verification DosVerifyOn turn on disk write verification DosWriteSt write a string to standard output BiosAlt% This function tells you whether an Alt key is pressed. Alt% = BiosAlt% BiosBaseMem% This function returns the amount of base memory installed, in kilobytes. These days, it will typically be 640. Kbytes% = BiosBaseMem% BiosCaps% This function tells you whether the CapsLock toggle is on. CapsLock% = BiosCaps% BiosChkEKey$ This function reads a character from the keyboard. It works like INKEY$, but doesn't take the key from the keyboard buffer. This is useful for handling control characters (Ctrl-S, Ctrl-Q, Ctrl-C, etc)-- you can have your program recognize them if pressed, without disturbing the keyboard buffer if someone is using type-ahead. Actually, it doesn't work quite like INKEY$ in another fashion which is to its advantage. It always returns a zero or two-character string, where the first character is the ASCII code (CHR$(0) for extended keys, like function keys and arrow keys) and the second character is the scan code. For normal keys, the scan code is always the same regardless of the shift state of the key. That is, the scan code for "A" is the scan code for "a" is the scan code for Ctrl-A is the scan code for Alt-A. Rose is a rose is a rose, eh? This is an occasionally useful property. Note that this keyboard service is for "enhanced" keyboards only. Use BiosChkKey$ for older keyboards. Ky$ = BiosChkEKey$ BiosChkKey$ This function reads a character from the keyboard. It works like INKEY$, but doesn't take the key from the keyboard buffer. This is useful for handling control characters (Ctrl-S, Ctrl-Q, Ctrl-C, etc)-- you can have your program recognize them if pressed, without disturbing the keyboard buffer if someone is using type-ahead. Actually, it doesn't work quite like INKEY$ in another fashion which is to its advantage. It always returns a zero or two-character string, where the first character is the ASCII code (CHR$(0) for extended keys, like function keys and arrow keys) and the second character is the scan code. For normal keys, the scan code is always the same regardless of the shift state of the key. That is, the scan code for "A" is the scan code for "a" is the scan code for Ctrl-A is the scan code for Alt-A. Rose is a rose is a rose, eh? This is an occasionally useful property. Note that this keyboard service, for reasons known only to IBM, is designed to ignore the new key codes for "enhanced" keyboards. This means it won't detect F11 or F12, for instance. Use BiosChkEKey$ for enhanced keyboards. Ky$ = BiosChkKey$ BiosChkPrt% This function returns the status of the selected printer. Status information is encoded at the bit level, as follows: 7 not busy 6 acknowledge 5 out of paper 4 selected 3 I/O error 2 unused 1 unused 0 timeout Status% = BiosChkPrt%(Port%) BiosComPorts% This function returns the number of serial (com) ports installed. Ports% = BiosComPorts% BiosCtrl% This function tells you whether a Ctrl key is pressed. Ctrl% = BiosCtrl% BiosELAlt% This function tells you whether the left Alt key is pressed. It works only with "enhanced" keyboards. LAlt% = BiosELAlt% BiosELCtrl% This function tells you whether the left Ctrl key is pressed. It works only with "enhanced" keyboards. LCtrl% = BiosELCtrl% BiosERAlt% This function tells you whether the right Alt key is pressed. It works only with "enhanced" keyboards. RAlt% = BiosERAlt% BiosERCtrl% This function tells you whether the right Ctrl key is pressed. It works only with "enhanced" keyboards. RCtrl% = BiosERCtrl% BiosESysRq% This function tells you whether the SysRq key is pressed. It works only with "enhanced" keyboards. SysRq% = BiosESysRq% BiosFloppies% This function returns the number of floppy drives installed. Floppies% = BiosFloppies% BiosGetEKeyW$ This function reads a character from the keyboard. It works like INKEY$, but waits until a key is pressed before returning. Actually, it doesn't work quite like INKEY$, which is to its advantage. It always returns a two-character string, where the first character is the ASCII code (CHR$(0) for extended keys, like function keys and arrow keys) and the second character is the scan code. For normal keys, the scan code is always the same regardless of the shift state of the key. That is, the scan code for "A" is the scan code for "a" is the scan code for Ctrl-A is the scan code for Alt-A. Rose is a rose is a rose, eh? This is an occasionally useful property. Note that this keyboard service is for use with "enhanced" keyboards only. Use BiosGetKeyW$ for older keyboards. Ky$ = BiosGetEKeyW$ BiosGetKeyW$ This function reads a character from the keyboard. It works like INKEY$, but waits until a key is pressed before returning. Actually, it doesn't work quite like INKEY$, which is to its advantage. It always returns a two-character string, where the first character is the ASCII code (CHR$(0) for extended keys, like function keys and arrow keys) and the second character is the scan code. For normal keys, the scan code is always the same regardless of the shift state of the key. That is, the scan code for "A" is the scan code for "a" is the scan code for Ctrl-A is the scan code for Alt-A. Rose is a rose is a rose, eh? This is an occasionally useful property. Note that this keyboard service, for reasons known only to IBM, is designed to ignore the new key codes for "enhanced" keyboards. This means it won't detect F11 or F12, for instance. Use BiosGetEKeyW$ for enhanced keyboards. Ky$ = BiosGetKeyW$ BiosGetVideo This routine returns information about the current video mode: the width of the screen (text columns), the screen mode, and the active display page. The screen mode uses a different numbering system than BASIC (or, more properly, vice versa). Standard BIOS screen modes are as follows: Mode Type Resolut. Colr Displ. Adapter ---- --------- -------- ---- ------ ----------- 0 text mode 40x25 16 mono CGA/EGA/VGA 1 text mode 40x25 16 color CGA/EGA/VGA 2 text mode 80x25 16 mono CGA/EGA/VGA 3 text mode 80x25 16 color CGA/EGA/VGA 4 graphics 320x200 4 color CGA/EGA/VGA 5 graphics 320x200 4 mono CGA/EGA/VGA 6 graphics 640x200 2 color CGA/EGA/VGA 7 text mode 80x25 .. mono MDA/Herc 13 graphics 320x200 16 color EGA/VGA 14 graphics 640x200 16 color EGA/VGA 15 graphics 640x350 2 mono EGA/VGA 16 graphics 640x350 16 color EGA/VGA 17 graphics 640x480 4 mono VGA 18 graphics 640x480 16 color VGA 19 graphics 320x200 256 color VGA BiosGetVideo Columns%, ScreenMode%, ActivePage% BiosInitPrt% This function initializes the selected printer. It also returns the status of the printer. Status information is encoded at the bit level, as follows: 7 not busy 6 acknowledge 5 out of paper 4 selected 3 I/O error 2 unused 1 unused 0 timeout Status% = BiosInitPrt%(Port%) BiosIns% This function tells you whether the Insert toggle is on. Ins% = BiosIns% BiosJoyPosn This routine returns the current joystick coordinates. If only one joystick is installed, the second set of coordinates is meaningless. Coordinates typically range from 0-400 or so. It is a good idea to include a joystick calibration routine in your program since the numbers may vary. BiosJoyPosn Stick1X%, Stick1Y%, Stick2X%, Stick2Y% BiosJoyPress This routine tells you which joystick buttons are being pressed. If only one joystick is installed, the second set of coordinates is meaningless. BiosJoyPress Stick1A%, Stick1B%, Stick2A%, Stick2B% BiosKeyIn% This function stuffs a key into the keyboard buffer. It is for AT-type computers only. You may stuff up to 15 keys into the normal buffer, depending on whether there are already any keys pending. A -1 will be returned if the keyboard buffer was full and the key couldn't be stuffed. The key specification must be as a two-character string. The first character is the ASCII code and the second, the scan code. In a pinch, you can usually get away with using CHR$(0) for the scan code, but it is better to include the scan code (use the BiosGetKeyW$ routine to find out the appropriate code). ErrCode% = BiosKeyIn%(Ky$) BiosKeyRep This routine allows you to change the key repeat rate on AT-type computers. You must specify the delay before repeat: 0-3, for 250mS to 1 second. You must also specify the repeat rate: 0-31, for 30/second to 2/second (12 is the default). BiosKeyRep RepDelay%, RepRate% BiosLShift% This function tells you whether the left Shift key is pressed. LShift% = BiosLShift% BiosMHide This routine hides the mouse cursor, making it invisible. BiosMHide BiosMInit% This function tells you whether a mouse is available. If so, it returns the number of buttons the mouse has. If not, it returns a zero. This function should be used at the start of any program which expects to use a mouse. You must not use any other mouse routine unless a mouse is available. Besides that, BiosMInit% initializes the mouse driver to a proper starting state. Buttons% = BiosMInit% BiosMLButton% This function tells you whether the left mouse button is being pressed. Pressed% = BiosMLButton% BiosMLClick This routine tells you how many times the left mouse button has been pressed since the last time you checked. It also returns the position of the mouse cursor as of the last left button press. See BiosWhereX% and BiosWhereY% for information on the unusual handling of coordinates in text and CGA SCREEN 1 modes. BiosMLClick Clicks%, X%, Y% BiosMLocate This routine sets the position of the mouse cursor. Note that coordinate handling is peculiar for text mode and SCREEN 1, for which a virtual screen of 640x200 is assumed. This means that you will have to double your X coordinate when in SCREEN 1 mode. For text mode, first subtract one from each coordinate, then multiply the coordinate by eight. Also keep in mind that for text mode the coordinates are normally Row, Column, but are here handled as if in graphics mode, so you need to use X, Y (or Column, Row) order instead. This is another fine mess Microsoft's gotten us into! BiosMLocate X%, Y% BiosMLRelease This routine tells you how many times the left mouse button has been released since the last time you checked. It also returns the position of the mouse cursor as of the last left button release. See BiosWhereX% and BiosWhereY% for information on the unusual handling of coordinates in text and CGA SCREEN 1 modes. BiosMLRelease Releases%, X%, Y% BiosMMButton% This function tells you whether the middle mouse button is being pressed. The results will not be meaningful on a two-button mouse. Pressed% = BiosMMButton% BiosMMClick This routine tells you how many times the middle mouse button has been pressed since the last time you checked. It also returns the position of the mouse cursor as of the last middle button press. The results will not be meaningful on a two-button mouse. See BiosWhereX% and BiosWhereY% for information on the unusual handling of coordinates in text and CGA SCREEN 1 modes. BiosMMClick Clicks%, X%, Y% BiosMMRelease This routine tells you how many times the middle mouse button has been released since the last time you checked. It also returns the position of the mouse cursor as of the last middle button release. The results will not be meaningful on a two-button mouse. See BiosWhereX% and BiosWhereY% for information on the unusual handling of coordinates in text and CGA SCREEN 1 modes. BiosMMRelease Releases%, X%, Y% BiosMRButton% This function tells you whether the right mouse button is being pressed. Pressed% = BiosMRButton% BiosMRClick This routine tells you how many times the right mouse button has been pressed since the last time you checked. It also returns the position of the mouse cursor as of the last right button press. See BiosWhereX% and BiosWhereY% for information on the unusual handling of coordinates in text and CGA SCREEN 1 modes. BiosMRClick Clicks%, X%, Y% BiosMRRelease This routine tells you how many times the right mouse button has been released since the last time you checked. It also returns the position of the mouse cursor as of the last right button release. See BiosWhereX% and BiosWhereY% for information on the unusual handling of coordinates in text and CGA SCREEN 1 modes. BiosMRRelease Releases%, X%, Y% BiosMShow This routine tries to make the mouse cursor visible. However, the mouse driver maintains a visibility count, so if multiple calls were made to BiosMHide, it will take just as many calls to BiosMShow to really make the cursor visible. BiosMShow BiosMWhereX% This function tells you the X coordinate of the mouse cursor. This is expressed in graphics coordinates even when text mode is in use. For normal text modes and both CGA modes, a virtual screen of 640x200 is assumed. So, for 320x200 CGA mode, divide the coordinate by two. For 80x25 text mode, divide it by eight. X% = BiosMWhereX% BiosMWhereY% This function tells you the Y coordinate of the mouse cursor. This is expressed in graphics coordinates even when text mode is in use. For normal text modes and both CGA modes, a virtual screen of 640x200 is assumed. So, for 80x25 text mode, divide it by eight. Y% = BiosMWhereY% BiosMWindow This routine restricts the mouse cursor to a specified area of the screen. See BiosMLocate for a description of the unusual cursor handling in text modes and SCREEN 1 graphics mode. BiosMWindow X1%, Y1%, X2%, Y2% BiosNum% This function tells you whether the NumLock toggle is on. NumLock% = BiosNum% BiosPrintCh% This function sends a character to the selected printer. It also returns the status of the printer. Status information is encoded at the bit level, as follows: 7 not busy 6 acknowledge 5 out of paper 4 selected 3 I/O error 2 unused 1 unused 0 timeout Status% = BiosPrintCh%(Port%, Ch$) BiosPrtPorts% This function returns the number of parallel (printer) ports installed. Ports% = BiosPrtPorts% BiosPrtSc This routine sends the screen to the printer. It works just like pressing PrtSc (PrintScreen) on your keyboard. If you want to print a graphics screen, you need to load the GRAPHICS.COM TSR that came with DOS. All versions of GRAPHICS support CGA graphics modes. Not all of them support EGA or VGA. BiosPrtSc BiosRShift% This function tells you whether the right Shift key is pressed. RShift% = BiosRShift% BiosScroll% This function tells you whether the ScrollLock toggle is on. ScrollLock% = BiosScroll% BiosScrollDn This routine scrolls any part of the screen down. You may specify the number of times to scroll. If you specify 0, the area will be cleared instead of scrolled. You must specify the colors to use on the new line(s) that was created by the scrolling action. BiosScrollDn TopRow%, LfCol%, BotRow%, RtCol%, Times%, Fore%, Back% BiosScrollUp This routine scrolls any part of the screen up. You may specify the number of times to scroll. If you specify 0, the area will be cleared instead of scrolled. You must specify the colors to use on the new line(s) that was created by the scrolling action. BiosScrollUp TopRow%, LfCol%, BotRow%, RtCol%, Times%, Fore%, Back% BiosXClose This routine closes an area of XMS associated with a specified handle. This must be done when you are finished using that area of XMS, so other routines and programs will be able to use it again later. BiosXClose Handle% BiosXExists% This function tells you whether an XMS driver is installed. XMS% = BiosXExists% BiosXLFree& This function tells you the size of the largest block of XMS memory that is available, in kilobytes. Compare with BiosXTFree&. LargestFreeBlock& = BiosXLFree& BiosXOpen This routine opens an area of XMS memory for use. The size is specified in kilobytes. If the specified amount of space can be allocated, a handle is returned which you will use to access that block in the future. If there is an error allocating that much memory, a non-zero error code will be returned. Note that handles are a limited resource, so you should try to use as few of them as possible. The maximum size theoretically possible under the XMS spec is 65,535 kilobytes (64 megabytes). I haven't tried this in practice! BiosXOpen KBytes&, Handle%, ErrCode% BiosXRead This routine gets information from XMS memory. You must specify the memory handle, the starting offset within the memory associated with that handle, and the number of bytes to transfer. The number of bytes must be an EVEN number, but is not limited to 64k. Finally, you must specify where to place the information as a segment and offset in conventional memory. For BASIC arrays and so forth, you can get this data using the VARSEG and VARPTR functions. Another common place to put the data might be the display. For text modes, this is a simple transfer. Use an offset of 0 and a segment of either &HB000 (MDA/Herc) or &B800 (CGA/EGA/VGA). BiosXRead Handle%, Posn&, Bytes&, DSeg%, DOfs% BiosXResize This routine allows you to change the size of a previously allocated block of XMS memory. You must specify the handle of the area to resize and the desired size, in kilobytes. If unable to reallocate the block as specified, BiosXResize will return a non-zero error code. BiosXResize Handle%, Bytes&, ErrCode% BiosXTFree& This function returns the total amount of available XMS memory in kilobytes. Compare with BiosXLFree&. TotalFree& = BiosXTFree& BiosXVer% This function returns the XMS driver version, multiplied by 100. For instance, version 1.01 would be returned as 101. XMSver! = BiosXVer% / 100! BiosXWrite This routine puts information into XMS memory. You must specify the memory handle, the starting offset within the memory associated with that handle, and the number of bytes to transfer. The number of bytes must be an EVEN number, but is not limited to 64k. Finally, you must specify where to get the information as a segment and offset in conventional memory. For BASIC arrays and so forth, you can get this data using the VARSEG and VARPTR functions. Another common place from which to get the data might be the display. For text modes, this is a simple transfer. Use an offset of 0 and a segment of either &HB000 (MDA/Herc) or &B800 (CGA/EGA/VGA). BiosXWrite Handle%, Posn&, Bytes&, DSeg%, DOfs% DosBreak% This function returns the current level of Break checking. At level 0, DOS checks for Ctrl-C/Break only during keyboard input or screen output. At level -1, DOS also checks during disk access. ExtendedBreak% = DosBreak% DosBreakOff This routine disables extended Break checking, so DOS only checks for Break during keyboard input or screen output. DosBreakOff DosBreakOn This routine enables extended Break checking, so DOS checks for Break during disk access as well as during keyboard input or screen output. DosBreakOn DosDiskInfo This routine returns an assortment of information about a given disk drive: sectors per cluster, free clusters, bytes per sector, and total clusters. From this, you can derive further information such as how much disk space is available and the total disk space. You may specify a null drive to get the information from the default drive. If there was an error, SecsPerClus& will be -1. DosDiskInfo Drive$, SecsPerClus&, FreeClus&, BytesPerSec&, TotalClus& DosGetDay$ This function returns the current day of the week as a three-character string. For instance, on Wednesday the result would be "Wed". Today$ = DosGetDay$ DosGetDir$ This function returns the default directory on the specified drive. If there was an error, a null string ("") will be returned. You may specify a null drive to get the directory of the default drive. Subdir$ = DosGetDir$(Drive$) DosGetDisk$ This function returns the letter of the currently selected disk drive. Drive$ = DosGetDisk$ DosGetFAttr% This function returns the file attributes of a specified file. The file must be terminated by CHR$(0). If there was an error, -1 will be returned. Otherwise, the result will be any combination of the following, added together: 1 read-only 2 hidden 4 system 8 volume label 16 subdirectory 32 archive The results can be most conveniently decoded using the AND function. For instance: IF DosGetFAttr%(File$ + CHR$(0)) AND 16 THEN PRINT "Subdirectory" END IF DosGetKey$ This function attempts to read a character from DOS standard input (normally the keyboard). It works like INKEY$. Standard input can be redirected from the command line, so it may get information from a file or device instead of the keyboard. That is one of the advantages of this function. Ky$ = DosGetKey$ DosGetKeyW$ This function reads a character from DOS standard input (normally the keyboard). It works like INKEY$, but waits until a key is pressed before returning. Standard input can be redirected from the command line, so it may get information from a file or device instead of the keyboard. That is one of the advantages of this function. Ky$ = DosGetKeyW$ DosGetVersion% This function returns the DOS version multiplied by 100. For instance, DOS 2.11 would be returned as 211. DOSver! = DosGetVersion% / 100! DosSetDisk% This function sets the default disk drive. It also returns the number of logical drives in the system. Note that a logical drive may be considered being like a drive letter-- it may refer to part of a larger physical drive, to a RAMdisk, to some other device, or to nothing at all. LogicalDrives% = DosSetDisk% (Drive$) DosSetFAttr% This function sets the file attributes of a specified file. The file must be terminated by CHR$(0). If there was an error, -1 will be returned. Otherwise, 0 will be returned. You may set any combination of the following attributes, added together: 1 read-only 2 hidden 4 system 32 archive ErrCode% = DosSetFAttr%(File$ + CHR$(0), FAttr%) DosVerify% This function tells you whether disk write verification is turned on. Verify% = DosVerify% DosVerifyOff This routine disables disk write verification. Verification provides better file security but slows things down. It is normally off by default. DosVerifyOff DosVerifyOn This routine enables disk write verification. Verification provides better file security but slows things down. It is normally off by default. DosVerifyOn DosWriteSt This routine writes a string to the DOS standard output (normally the display). Standard output can be redirected from the command line, so it may write information to a file or device instead of the display. It also supports device drivers such as ANSI.SYS. That is one of the advantages of this routine. DosWriteSt St$