Showing pictures in C++

[Kon-Tiki]

I'm trying to find out how to show a pic above some text in a Dos program made in C++. I've read up on bitmaps and know of allegro (but if I can do this without allegro, it'd be better). Now my question is: can anybody here explain clearly how to do this?

[Nychold]

I'm not proficient with Allegro, however you always have the option of using DJGPP (a DOS/DPMI C/C++ compiler) and VESA SVGA graphics modes. I won't waste time talking about them; information on VESA is abundant. Displaying a picture (BMP, XBM, JPG, etc.) is as simple as decoding the data inside the file (BMP is the easiest) and displaying it a pixel at a time. Some graphics cards allow faster displaying using bit BLT (BLock Transfer), also known as bit blitting. This is when you store the pixels to a specific location in memory (usually video memory), and transfer that block into the currently displaying screen. It's a relatively simple process.

[Kon-Tiki]

Ah, so I don't need to mess around with stuff like Glut, Allegro or things like that, but I can just keep using Dev-C++ and learn about VESA