PRO/5 For MS-DOS on a 386 or Higher Processor
PRO/5 for the 80386 processor allows you to fully use the large memory spaces of the 80386, 80486, or Pentium Class processor while running under MS-DOS. This is done by locating the PRO/5 executable code in high memory and leaving only a small amount of memory in the low space for communications with MS-DOS. This gives PRO/5 all of the processor capabilities of the 80386, but requires that all communications with MS-DOS "pass-through" this small amount of data and code, slowing the system communications. This small slowdown (controllable by memory manager selection) is normally made up by the faster CPU bound operations.
PRO/5 also supports virtual memory, that is to say that the amount of memory used by the application running in PRO/5 can exceed the amount of physical memory available on your system. This is done using the environment variables TMP=<directory> or TEMP=<directory>. The first environment variable found above will be used. If neither environment variable is found, the swap file will be defined on the disk drive that has the largest free space.
The cost for this is that the pro5.exe file must remain open during execution. This means the device that PRO/5 loads from cannot be removed, making it impossible for PRO/5 to continue to run if it was started from a floppy disk which was subsequently removed.
Starting PRO/5
On startup, PRO/5 will first check to see if you have a 80386 or compatible processor. If this test fails, PRO/5 issues a message such as "Fatal error, 80386 processor is required".
If an 80386 is found, PRO/5 will examine the system for a memory manager.
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It will first check for a DPMI host such as MS Windows.
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If a DPMI host is found all memory will be allocated using that host.
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If a DPMI host is not found, then PRO/5 will allocate memory using VCPI, XMS INT 15, and VDISK industry standard methods.
If PRO/5 finds a memory manager known to be incompatible with PRO/5, it will issue a message "Previously installed software is neither VCPI or DPMI compatible" and fail to load.
Following this, PRO/5 will allocate some 16-bit memory for the communications code and data buffers for the 80386 communications to MS-DOS. If this fails an error message will appear.
Graphics Modes
The table below includes values that may be used to select the display type. You must set the environment variable FG_DISPLAY= to one of the following display names outside of PRO/5. For example, SET FG_DISPLAY= ATI63.
|
Name |
Value |
Comment |
|
Null |
0 |
All graphics routed to bit bucked |
|
The following correspond to BIOS video modes: |
||
|
CGAMEDRES |
4 |
IBM CGA in 320 x 200 color (mode 0x04) |
|
CGAHIRES |
6 |
IBM CGA in 640 x 200 (mode 0x06) |
|
EGALOWRES |
0x0D |
EGA in 320 x 200 x 16 colors (mode 0x0D) |
|
EGACOLOR |
0x0E |
EGA with regular color display (mode 0x0E) |
|
EGAMONO |
0x0F |
EGA with IBM monochrome monitor (mode 0x0F) |
|
EGAECD |
0x10 |
EGA with enhanced color display (mode 0x10) |
|
VGA11 |
0x11 |
IBM VGA in 640 x 480, 1 color |
|
VGA12 |
0x12 |
IBM VGA in 640 x 480, 16 colors |
|
ORCHIDPROHIRES |
0x29 |
ORCHID PRO (obsolete use FG_TSENGHIRES) |
|
TSENGHIRES |
0x29 |
Tseng Labs 800 x 600, 16 colors |
|
PARADISEHIRES |
0x58 |
PARADISE VGA 800 x 600, 16 colors |
|
TRIDENTHIRES |
0x5B |
TRIDENT VGA 800 x 600, 16 colors |
|
ATI61 |
0xA61 |
ATI 640 x 400, 256 colors |
|
ATI62 |
0xA62 |
ATI 640 x 480, 256 colors |
|
ATI63 |
0xA63 |
ATI 800 x 600, 256 colors |
|
VGAAVGAHIRES |
0x62 |
VIDEO 7 VEGA VGA in 800 x 600, 16 colors |
|
DFIHIRES |
0x64 |
Diamond Flower Instruments 800 x 600 x 16 |
|
VESA6A |
0x6A |
VESA mode 0x6A, 800 x 600, 16 colors |
|
EVGAHIRES |
0x70 |
Everex EVGA in 800 x 600, 16 colors |
|
TOSHIBA |
0x74 |
Toshiba J-3100 |
|
VESA0 |
0x100 |
VESA mode 0x100, 640 x 400, 256 colors |
|
VESA1 |
0x101 |
VESA mode 0x101, 640 x 480, 256 colors |
|
VESA2 |
0x102 |
VESA mode 0x102, 800 x 600, 16 colors |
|
VESA3 |
0x103 |
VESA mode 0x103, 800 x 600, 256 colors |
|
VESA5 |
0x105 |
VESA mode 0x105, 1024 x 768, 256 colors |
|
VESA7 |
0x107 |
VESA mode 0x107, 1280 x 1024, 256 colors |
|
HERCHALF |
2 |
Hercules monochrome, 1 display page |
|
HERCFULL |
3 |
Hercules monochrome, 2 display pages |
|
8514A |
-10 |
IBM 8514A |
|
TIGA |
0x340 |
Texas Instruments TMS340 Family - TIGA 2.0 |
There is no support for plotters or plotter drivers other than those listed above. If additional plotters or plotter drivers are supported in the future theREADMEfile will provide the information.
Additional Display Ability
A 'CP' mnemonic will allow a 43-line screen on video systems supporting this capability. Most EGA and all VGA will support this capability.
Additionally, PRO/5 will initialize the initial window to the mode present in MS-DOS. As an example, if the DOS MODE command is executed as MODE CO80,50 immediately prior to PRO/5 invocation, PRO/5 will be initialized with a 80-column by 50-row window.