Text UI Video memory - how to get more than 80 characters

[jammmie999]

Hey,

Is there anyway that I can still use the Text UI but have more than 80 characters on screen, or do I need to move to some other form of GUI?

Thanks,

P.S. I am rather new to this so the simpler the better.

[VolTeK]

Look up text modes on Google.

[jammmie999]

Ok...
This page seems to have proved useful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVGATextMode
I can't seem to find out though which graphics mode (e.g. 13h, EVGA, VESA, Mode X ...) 'modern' operating systems such as Windows, Mac, Linux etc. use? to support multiple monitors.

Thanks

[neon]

Hello,

It is important to realize that a lot of standard modes aren't standard to support. A lot of "modern" operating systems use such modes. If you want to support these modes, you will either need VBE or to write your own driver.

For what you originally wanted, however, you don't need a graphics mode. Text mode is adequate given you know how to work with VGA to perform what you want. ie, a common text mode that some people use is a 90x60 character tweaked mode. Its important to know that non-standard modes however may not work on all machines. A quick forum search also provides source code that does just that.

[FallenAvatar]

Also, I very much doubt you will find any text mode that supports multiple monitors...

[Combuster]

Any multiheaded mode is a virtual one. It has nothing to do with rendering text or graphics. It's also completely irrelevant to the OP.

[VolTeK]

TextUI

to support multiple monitors.

There was never any need, because text was usually used in a CLI fashion.


If you can manage to get two terminals working on a GUI mode on two screens and have it set up like its a text mode look a' like. Sure.

[brain]

TextUI

to support multiple monitors.

There was never any need, because text was usually used in a CLI fashion.


If you can manage to get two terminals working on a GUI mode on two screens and have it set up like its a text mode look a' like. Sure.

To be honest if anyone ever came up with a multiheaded text mode cli interface I would love it... Sounds really productive without any gui overhead.

[turdus]

To be honest if anyone ever came up with a multiheaded text mode cli interface I would love it... Sounds really productive without any gui overhead.

As a matter of fact, EGA was designed to support multiple monitors from the beginning. You would need two cards though, the first mapped to B0000h, the second to B8000h. You could also switch to graphic mode independently (this was their purpose: one monitor for editing/debugging possibly in text mode, and the other for displaying result possibly in graphic mode).
I saw that working in the late 80's. It was a control station for a barrage, one monitor displayed the status info and water levels (full screen graphic mode, no GUI), the other was for the operator running some text mode menu system written in Clipper.