There is an exe in system32 called edit.com . It is an old text editor. I'm wondering how they made a console app have a gui, and work with the mouse? Thanks
A:
edit.com is REALLY old. It was written before the Windows GUI was really popular. They probably use special DOS functions to create the graphics and recognize the mouse.
Pace
2010-02-17 14:54:51
A:
Well prior to Windows 3.1 there used to be an operating system call DOS and I believe the mouse thing came with DOS 5.0 or DOS 4.0.
Raj
2010-02-17 14:55:08
Mouse drivers could be used well before DOS 4.0 (I personally accessed one programmatically in DOS 3.3).
Joachim Sauer
2010-02-17 15:07:53
good old times :)
Alexandru
2010-02-17 15:45:15
A:
Your best bet for adding mouse and color support to a console is to use some kind of TextArea control and make your own console instead of using the DOS console. You could also look into ncurses for Windows but I don't recommend it. If you just want color you could also look at this tutorial.
Pace
2010-02-17 15:04:22
Wow ... looking up `int 33` leads to HTML copies of HELPPC. A tremendously useful TSR application that was a hyperlinked documentation system of the most common interrupts and other system-level stuff useful when writing that kind of code. A funny trip down the memory lane!
Joachim Sauer
2010-02-17 15:11:08
Well, I wouldn't want to do it with a very good documentation by my side that I could reference. :) I'm new here so I don't know if we can share links, but if you search for "INT 33,1 Show Mouse Cursor" you'll find some reference material about all the functions and a bit about how they were used.
Pessimist
2010-02-17 15:14:07
... and writing into the text video buffer via `B800:0000`. Back then, it was "fun".
ZoogieZork
2010-02-17 15:20:12