DOS Corner

In addition to the bug corrections reported in the previous section, the Release 6.1 and 6.2 updates for DOS systems also feature a substantial improvement in the speed for displaying annotations (a speed-up factor of about 3-4 compared to previous versions). Thus, if you are working with long annotation files (such as those generated by POLYZONE), it might be worthwhile to request the latest DOS update kit from INRO.

The DOS version of EMTOOL is constantly being enhanced. The following is a list of new features that have been implemented in the last few months:

• Support for VESA SuperVGA Video BIOS Extensions: More and more SuperVGA boards are using this standard, including boards from ATI, Cirrus, Diamond, Genoa, Orchid, Paradise, Trident and Video7.
• SuperVGA resolutions higher than 1024x768: Previous DOS versions of EMTOOL only supported direct memory access for video modes with resolutions of up to 1 million pixels.
• Configurable audible/visible bell: Frequency and duration of the ``beep'' sound generated by EMTOOL are now user configurable, and it can also be complemented or even replaced by a visible ``flash'' on the screen. If you share your office with other people, they might appreciate this new feature - especially during long interactive editing sessions ...
• Support for the high resolution modes of COMPAQ's new QVision board was added, as well as the automatic detection of the Tseng ET4000 processor.

Note that this new DOS version of EMTOOL is still being tested internally, and thus not yet available for official distribution. However, if you need any of the new possibilities described above, you can contact INRO for obtaining a pre-release version, as soon as it becomes available.