Grzyb wrote on 2022-10-09, 21:04:This only works for programs that use the Hercules card via MSHERC.
Vast majority of programs use Hercules directly. […]
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Jo22 wrote on 2022-10-09, 14:43:The Microsoft driver library for Hercules support, MSHERC, can be loaded with a switch:
MSHERC /HALF […]
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The Microsoft driver library for Hercules support, MSHERC, can be loaded with a switch:
MSHERC /HALF
This will Hercules aware applications make use only one video page,
which can co-exist with CGA.
This only works for programs that use the Hercules card via MSHERC.
Vast majority of programs use Hercules directly.
Most programs using native Hercules graphics (720x348, as opposed to CGA emulation modes) only use the first page.
But there's also plenty of exceptions: Windows 3.1 with Hercules Monochrome driver uses the second, and Blockout game uses both for double-buffering.
You're right, MSHERC is mainly a support library for establishing Hercules software support. 🙂
It's a set of routines that were "outsourced", so the compiler wouldn't bloat up the programs with rarely needed Hercules routines.
I guess that was a dilemma at the time, also. 🤷♂️
Hercules was dated, but still a defacto standard in the business world of the 1980s.
Companies just couldn't afford dropping support for it.
To my defense, that's why I mentioned this before, albeit a bit down the posting. 😅
To the technical side: I don't know exactly how it works.
I assume, it puts the Hercules into half mode first (register write ?),
then provides the library for Microsoft products (QB45, VBDOS, EDIT etc).
But anyway, there were just two mayor compiler makers at the time: Microsoft and Borland.
Or rather, they were popularly known makers of compilers.
There existed much more less relevant compiler makers, but I can't remember them (Watcom? Mix Software? DJ Delorie's? and..?).
Clipper, the dBase compiler, also was often used for business purposes (various dBase translators, such as DBÜ, for converting code also existed).
The preferences surely changed in the 1990s.
Watcom and some other one (DJ something?) were really hyped.
Borland's Turbo Pascal also was still important to all the sane people that didn't feel comfortable with the nerdy C/C++. 😉
Borland's Turbo line (Turbo Pascal etc) used *.BGI drivers to further extend support for graphics adapters.
Maybe these drivers were intelligent enough to recognize the current state
of MSHERC or the Hercules card and kept the half mode configuration.
That being said, I haven't tested this before. I'm really curious finding out!
I mean Borland's Turbo Basic (later, Power Basic) was like Quick Basic, just more "tuned" (CPU type could be set for code generation etc).
So there's a possibility that it was mimicking the behavior of the Microsoft's flag ship (QB).
On thw other hand, it had certain bugs, also. Not sure how it handled Hercules support. 🤷♂️
Edit: I forgot to mention. Hercules was often misspelled as "Herkules" in my country.
This might be good to know when looking for related documents.
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