some old DOS programming articles online

Rod Pemberton

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Nov 15, 2014, 3:30:15 PM11/15/14

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Issues of the Programmers Journal are viewable online.
They include articles on DOS TSRs, DOS device drivers, and
a series of EGA and VGA articles by Michael Abrash. There
is even one from 1989 that displays the internal DOS structures.

http://www.unz.org/Pub/ProgrammersJournal

Rod Pemberton

Harry Potter

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Nov 15, 2014, 4:14:27 PM11/15/14

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Thanks :), but can you help me find help on disk device drivers? I'm trying hard to create disk compression even though it's been stagnated for months! :(

Rod Pemberton

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Nov 15, 2014, 10:16:21 PM11/15/14

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On Sat, 15 Nov 2014 16:14:26 -0500, Harry Potter <rose.j...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Thanks :), but can you help me find help on disk device drivers? I'm
> trying hard to create disk compression even though it's been stagnated
> for months! :(

I know of a bunch of sources for information on
a) device drivers and b) installable filesystems.

E.g., you need a device driver to access a CD-ROM
or a USB device, while you need the ISO9660 filesystem
via MSCDEX to read the ISO9660 filesystem on CD-ROMs.
Of course, you only need these for filesystems and
devices that DOS doesn't support. E.g., a USB device
uses FAT12/16/32 which DOS supports, so you don't need
a installable filesystem for USB devices. The installable
filesystem interface used by MSDEX (on Int 2F) is called
the "network redirector" interface since it was
originally designed for remote filesystems.

a) device drivers

IBM Disk Operating System Version 4.00 Technical Reference
"Chapter 11. Writing an Installable Device Driver"
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/pc/dos/15F0256_DOS_4.0_Technical_Reference_Jul88.pdf

PC DOS 7 Technical Update
"Chapter 8. Writing an Installable Device Driver"
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/gg244459.pdf

"DOS Device Drivers: A Debugging Utility and Definition"
Stephen A Rodgers, Programmers Journal, Nov. 1988, pg 46-52
http://www.unz.org/Pub/ProgrammersJournal-1988nov-00046

DR-DOS System and Programmer's Guide Device Driver.htm
"Chapter 6 Device Drivers"
http://www.drdos.net/documentation/sysprog/chap6.htm

Writing MS-DOS Device Drivers by Marcus Johnson, DDJ, Dec 1990
http://www.drdobbs.com/writing-ms-dos-device-drivers/184402277

b) installable filesystems

See my recent post here with updated links to some.
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.os.msdos.programmer/55F4-D7mUOI/jBiPRN4SCfgJ
Usenet MSG-ID op.xosl00i9mk81un@localhost

Old post of mine with list of Int 2F "network redirector" functions (as
equates).
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.os.msdos.programmer/pw4dPk30E30/vUue6E8VXncJ
Usenet MSG-ID b6ph93-...@news.infowest.com

c) Some links to other reference and technical manuals for
DOS, BIOS, PC/XT/AT/PS2 etc:

http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/pc/ps2/
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/pc/dos/
http://www.retroarchive.org/dos/docs/
http://www.mcamafia.de/pdf/pdfref.htm
https://archive.org/details/SystemBiosForIbmPcxtAtComputersCompatibles

FYI, "JJ" on comp.lang.asm.x86 asked a similar question recently.

Rod Pemberton

Wildman

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Nov 16, 2014, 2:42:17 AM11/16/14

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On Sat, 15 Nov 2014 22:16:01 -0500
"Rod Pemberton" <buz...@nonamewhichexists.cmm> wrote:

> <snip>

Great links Rod. Thanks.

--
<Wildman> GNU/Linux user #557453
May the Source be with you.