DOS Graphics

Factual Questions
1

I was never a DOS Guy - the last command-line I used was BASIC on the Apple.

But at work, we need to know how to draw boxes, frames and other low-res goodies in DOS. Never mine why.

Anyone know how?

2

You can probably find most of what you want in the extended ASCII character set, that is, characters with ASCII values over 127. Specifically, numbers 179 through 218 are the ones you use for drawing boxes. You can make them in DOS by holding down Alt and typing in their values. For a listing of them, open Windows Character Map and select the Terminal font. Good luck!

3

You’ve got options. Lot’s of them. Well, threee.

  1. Direct memory access. Get a pointer to the video area ( A000:0000 for VGA and B000:000 for ega, if memory serves)and start writing. This is almost certainly more than you require, however, if that’s what you want to do, drop me a line, and I’ll see if I can remember how to do it.
    Or at least point you to some fairly archaic books.

  2. However it is that BBS sysops used to draw them. I believe the secret was to load ANSI.SYS and echo ansi control codes to the console. You might do a google search for ANSI.SYS and see if that helps.

  3. Force opal to create them for you.

  4. The easy way. Assuming for the moment that all you want to do is, say, enclose some text inside a box, you can use high ascii characters. If you’ve got access to a windows box, pull up character map, and set the character set to DOS: United States. You’ll note that, toward the bottom there are a bunch of characters that can be used to draw lines appropriate for boxes. If you click on one, its ASCII value will appear at the bottom of the character map - helpfully displayed in hex. You’ll need its decimal value. Pay special attention to characters 0xb3 to 0xDA (179 to 218 decimal).

In order to create these characters, you’ll need a DOS based editor (like edit). Notepad will not work. Figure out the value of the character you wish to draw. Then, press down and hold down the ALT key. Type the decimal value of the character on the number keypad - the 10 key pad, not the numbers above the letters. When you release the ALT key, the character who’s value you just entered will appear in the edit window. If you did not have the Num Lock state turned on, and you report that it doesn’t work, I will revert to my old techsupport days by putting you on mute and saying mean things about you.

That will allow you to draw simple boxes. If you can be a little clearer about the requirements, I may be able to be a little more helpful.

On preview, I notice that someone beat me to it. I’ve got to type faster…

4

There used to be a DOS program for creating Ansi screens called ‘TheDraw’. You might be able to find it somewhere online that carries old DOS software.

5

Depending on exactly what it is you are trying to accomplish, you could use gw-basic or quickbasic, change the screen mode to a graphical one (12?..it’s been sooo long), then use the drawing functions to create whatever you want.

6

You may want to check out 4dos from jpsoftware. It’s a replacement for command.com, with lots of scripting stuff and easy boxes and such.

Alternatively, I’d recommend you use Ansi.sys, especially if you want to apply bold or colors to stuff.

7

On this page about half way down is a table called “IBM PC Extended ASCII Display Characters”, this should satisfy all your DOS graphic needs.