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Configuring ANSIPLUS

Changes to the startup configuration for ANSIPLUS are made with the NEWAPLUS utility program. All changes that you make with the NEWAPLUS.exe program will take effect only after you restart your computer.

All startup configuration changes made by NEWAPLUS (except for the ANSIPLUS loading option) are installed by changing tables in the ANSIPLUS driver file. Because of this, some anti-virus and disk compression software may complain that the driver file or the system configuration has been altered after you have used NEWAPLUS. Just ignore this complaint.

You run NEWAPLUS with a command of the form:

NEWAPLUS <target>
where <target> is usually the drive letter for a bootable diskette or hard disk partition with ANSIPLUS installed. If <target> is omitted, the drive that was originally used to load MS-DOS will be selected. The <target> may also specify the full path name of the ANSIPLUS driver file you want to reconfigure, in which case those few revision options that affect CONFIG.sys or AUTOEXEC.bat will be unavailable. After NEWAPLUS confirms that the target disk contains ANSIPLUS, you are presented with a startup configuration menu that has twelve revision option groups:
 
Initial Colors
Loading Option
Color Control
Palette Definition
Keyboard
Display Control
Border Color
Assign Keys
Scroll-Back
Version
Tone Definition
Other

Initial Colors

Color selection sub-menus let you choose from the current 16-color palette the screen colors that will be used for text foreground and background when the system starts up. ANSIPLUS maintains two sets of foreground and background colors: those that are currently on the screen, and "default" colors to be applied when an ANSI Set Graphics Rendition reset (i.e., Esc [0m ) is output. The startup selections for both color combinations can be controlled from this sub-menu.

Palette Definition

The color palette determines the precise colors you will see in 16 color video modes. ANSIPLUS maintains two palettes: the current palette on the screen, and a default palette that is loaded when ANSIPLUS first starts and whenever the video display mode is changed. All changes you make using the NEWAPLUS color palette option will apply to the default palette.

Border Color

The border color is generated for the "overscan" region on the outside edges of the screen. You can select any available color as the default border color, which will be installed when ANSIPLUS starts up and whenever the display mode is set.

Version

ANSIPLUS 4.00 or later lets you select between two device drivers: the full driver ("ANSIPLUS"), and a reduced capability driver ("ANSIPLSR"). The only advantage of the reduced capability driver is that it requires about 35 percent less memory after it is loaded. To save this memory, five ANSIPLUS features are removed: scroll-back, copy/paste, direct output to video RAM in graphics mode, graphics mode text treatments, and monochrome VGA emulation on a color VGA.

Loading Option

ANSIPLUS can be loaded into memory up to seven different ways, depending on your computer's capabilities and what is contained in CONFIG.sys. These loading options allow you to control ANSIPLUS's requirements for each type of system memory: low memory below 640K, XMS upper memory blocks from 640K to 1M (UMB memory), high memory from 1M to 1M+64K (HMA), or EMS expanded memory.
The following table shows the differences in memory breakdown (in K-bytes) for the full capability ANSIPLUS driver. Notice that each option in the table uses at least 64K of EMS memory. EMS memory is the reommended location for holding scroll-back data for the ANSIPLUS driver. In order to have access to EMS memory, an EMS memory manager such as EMM386 or QEMM386 must be loaded by CONFIG.sys before the ANSIPLUS driver is loaded, and it must have its EMS RAM and page frame enabled.
 
Approximate ANSIPLUS Memory Requirements

Loading Method
Low
Memory
UMB
Memory
HMA
Memory
EMS
Memory
Load to low memory 35 0 0 64
Load code to upper memory blocks 6 29 0 64
Load code to HMA high memory 11 0 24 64
Load code to EMS expanded memory 7 0 0 96
Load driver high to UMB memory 0 35 0 64
Load driver high, code to HMA 0 11 24 64
Load driver high, code to EMS 0 7 0 96

Usage of low memory may not be the only consideration when deciding how to load ANSIPLUS. The following gives further information about each loading option:

Keyboard

  • Keyboard Buffer Size: By default, ANSIPLUS increases the keyboard buffer capacity to 128 characters, which should hold at least as much as most users can type ahead accurately. To expand the computer’s keyboard buffer capacity, an extension buffer is retained within ANSIPLUS, and whenever the ROM BIOS buffer has space available for keys held in the ANSIPLUS buffer, they are moved into the standard ROM BIOS buffer. You configure this buffer by specifying the total number of keys to be buffered.
  • Key Repeat or "Typematic" Rate: The keyboard repeat rate determines how fast keys will be generated when a key is held down and not lifted. For systems with enhanced keyboards, ANSIPLUS lets this rate be configured anywhere from 2 to 300 characters per second. For most applications, an ANSIPLUS repeat rate setting greater than 30 characters per second will take precedence over the keyboard repeat rate set by other programs, such as the DOS MODE program. Because of imprecise timing under Windows, however, this feature is disabled when Windows is running. If desired, it may also be disabled entirely to use the standard rate.
  • Keyboard Typematic Delay: The keyboard typematic delay, which determines how long a key must be held down before repeated keys will start to be generated, is also configurable. ANSIPLUS accepts four settings from 250 ms to 1000 ms.
  • Enable Sticky Shift Keys: ANSIPLUS supports sticky shift keys for one handed or mouth stick typists. When this feature is enabled, if the user strikes a Shift, Ctrl or Alt key once, it will remain "on" until the next normal key is struck, and then will be reset. If one of these shift keys is pressed twice, it will be locked on for all subsequent keystrokes until hit a third time to turn it off.
  • Allow Zero Key to Repeat: Some "point-of-sale" keyboards include special "00" or "000" keys for entry of multiple zeros, but generate the zeros without simulating the lifting of the key between the characters. Because ANSIPLUS will normally suppress repeated digits, the multiple-zero keys on these keyboards will enter only a single zero. A configurable feature is provided to allow repeated zeros when using such keyboards.
  • Assigning Keys

    Tone Definition

    Color Control

    Display Control

    Screen Scroll-Back

    Other


    © Copyright 2000-2007, Kristofer Sweger. All rights reserved.
    Rev. 10/16/07