NovaFont for DOS

Discussion:

NovaFont for DOS

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Alejandro Lieber

2017-10-18 00:54:12 UTC

NovaFont for DOS

NovaFont.com is a small program that loads a font much easier to read

than the one included in normal VGA boards.

It's free for personal use.

It can be loaded into upper memory using less than 6Kb.

It will stay resident until you reboot.

Normally, you would load it from the command line or your AUTOEXEC.BAT.

Just include the following line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT:

novafont.com

or

lh novafont.com

http://lieber.com.ar/novafont.zip

http://ftp.icm.edu.pl/pub/simtelnet/msdos/graphics/novafo01.zip

Enjoy it, and let me know if it is useful to you.

Alejandro Lieber

2017-10-18 02:56:37 UTC

Permalink

Post by Alejandro Lieber
NovaFont for DOS
NovaFont.com is a small program that loads a font much easier to read
than the one included in normal VGA boards.
It's free for personal use.
It can be loaded into upper memory using less than 6Kb.
It will stay resident until you reboot.
Normally, you would load it from the command line or your AUTOEXEC.BAT.
novafont.com
or
lh novafont.com
http://lieber.com.ar/novafont.zip
http://ftp.icm.edu.pl/pub/simtelnet/msdos/graphics/novafo01.zip
Enjoy it, and let me know if it is useful to you.
Alejandro Lieber

Since it's a font, I was wondering what font sizes it supports. I'm pretty
sure that it's for 80x25 screen, but what about higher screen sizes?
Unfortunately, there's no single information regarding that matter.

So, I had to try it out by myself. Turns out that it's pretty good. At
first... But, I always check fonts by the appearance of the "0" (number
zero), "O" (upper case letter O), "1" (number one), "l" (lower case letter
L), "I" (upper case letter I), and "|" (pipe) characters. Turns out that "I"
(upper case letter I) and "|" (pipe) characters looks exactly identical.
That's a big bummer.

As for font size, it seems that it's only for 80x25 screen. It would be
great if it also has fonts for higher screen sizes (i.e. smaller fonts).

Another downside is that the program is not unloadable. So, the only way to
unload it is by using a third party program. Ungraceful unload, of course.

Off topic...
What packer program did you use to compress the file?

R.Wieser

2017-10-18 07:10:14 UTC

Permalink

JJ,

Post by JJ
As for font size, it seems that it's only for 80x25 screen.

Which one ? 8x8 chars ? 8x14 perhaps ? Remember, we are talking about
something *old* here.

Post by JJ
Another downside is that the program is not unloadable.

Which is in par with the OS.

Just think of *two* TSRs intercepting the same vector, and what happens when
the first one restores its saved, origional vector. Yep, the second one
will not receive those messages anymore either ...

The, at that time, suggested "best solution" was to *not* fully unload the
program, but leave a kind of "stub" behind which would just pass-thru the
intercepted messages.

By the way: nothing stops you from simply grabbing the full font when its
used (and than write your own proggie around it). :-)

Hmmmm.... The fake virus "animO" just came back to me: a TSR which would
"melt" all "O" characters on the screen -- simply by redefining the
character. Funny when you started it on some poor saps machine,
preferrably when he was using the text editor... Yikes, I see I even still
got the (adapted) sourcecode for it.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

Post by JJ

Since it's a font, I was wondering what font sizes it supports. I'm pretty
sure that it's for 80x25 screen, but what about higher screen sizes?
Unfortunately, there's no single information regarding that matter.
So, I had to try it out by myself. Turns out that it's pretty good. At
first... But, I always check fonts by the appearance of the "0" (number
zero), "O" (upper case letter O), "1" (number one), "l" (lower case letter
L), "I" (upper case letter I), and "|" (pipe) characters. Turns out that "I"
(upper case letter I) and "|" (pipe) characters looks exactly identical.
That's a big bummer.
As for font size, it seems that it's only for 80x25 screen. It would be
great if it also has fonts for higher screen sizes (i.e. smaller fonts).
Another downside is that the program is not unloadable. So, the only way to
unload it is by using a third party program. Ungraceful unload, of course.
Off topic...
What packer program did you use to compress the file?

Mateusz Viste

2017-10-18 09:57:14 UTC

Permalink

Post by R.Wieser

Post by JJ
Another downside is that the program is not unloadable.

That's why the first one should check "is the vector still pointing to
me?" - and if not, either leave a dummy stub or tell "sorry, cannot
unload with someone standing on my head".

Post by R.Wieser
The, at that time, suggested "best solution" was to *not* fully unload
the program, but leave a kind of "stub" behind which would just
pass-thru the intercepted messages.

That's probably better than refusing to unload indeed.

Post by R.Wieser
By the way: nothing stops you from simply grabbing the full font when
its used (and than write your own proggie around it). :-)

Not sure this would be compliant with OP's "license" (which is, to say
the least - pretty vague).

Mateusz

Kerr-Mudd,John

2017-10-19 20:23:38 UTC

Permalink

Post by Mateusz Viste

Post by R.Wieser

Post by JJ
Another downside is that the program is not unloadable.

That's why the first one should check "is the vector still pointing to
me?" - and if not, either leave a dummy stub or tell "sorry, cannot
unload with someone standing on my head".

I thought there were/are unloaders; you ran Mark before the TSR then
Release would revert to the previous vectors. Ah yes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminate_and_Stay_Resident

Post by Mateusz Viste

Post by R.Wieser
The, at that time, suggested "best solution" was to *not* fully unload
the program, but leave a kind of "stub" behind which would just
pass-thru the intercepted messages.

That's probably better than refusing to unload indeed.

Post by R.Wieser
By the way: nothing stops you from simply grabbing the full font when
its used (and than write your own proggie around it). :-)

Not sure this would be compliant with OP's "license" (which is, to say
the least - pretty vague).
Mateusz

R.Wieser

2017-10-20 07:52:39 UTC

Permalink

John,

the TSR then Release would revert to the previous vectors.

Restoring those vectors is not the problem, a TSR can do that by itself
(with the smart ones refusing if they do not see the origional vector
pointing to themselves :-) )

The problem is doing it in a way which doesn't break the chain to the other,
later installed TSRs, which are *ofcourse* expected to keep functioning --
or become so-called "orphaned" code (or by another name: memory leaks). :-(

... Or worse: become zombies with some of their vectors broken, but others
still functioning ...

And although I've seen mechanims advocated which could do exactly that (by
asking TSR directly before the current one to use the current ones stored
"next" vector), I've never seen it gain any traction (only one TSR needs
*not* to implement it, and it breaks the whole thing for the ones who did).

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

Alejandro Lieber

2017-10-18 09:57:05 UTC

Permalink

Post by JJ

See:

http://www.staticky.com/novafont/index.html

Post by JJ
That's a big bummer.
As for font size, it seems that it's only for 80x25 screen. It would be
great if it also has fonts for higher screen sizes (i.e. smaller fonts).
Another downside is that the program is not unloadable. So, the only way to
unload it is by using a third party program. Ungraceful unload, of course.
Off topic...
What packer program did you use to compress the file?

UPX

Alejandro Lieber
Rosario Argentina

Mateusz Viste

2017-10-18 09:50:59 UTC

Permalink

Post by Alejandro Lieber
NovaFont.com is a small program that loads a font much easier to read
than the one included in normal VGA boards.

Hello Alejandro,

That's nice, but I cannot find what codepages it supports... Only CP437
then I guess?

Also, it could be more "generic" to bundle it in the form of a CPI/CPX
binary instead of wrapping a dedicated TSR around.

Any chance for a "with sources" release some day?

cheers,
Mateusz

Alejandro Lieber

2017-10-18 10:13:08 UTC

Permalink

Post by Mateusz Viste

Post by Alejandro Lieber
NovaFont.com is a small program that loads a font much easier to read
than the one included in normal VGA boards.

Hello Alejandro,
That's nice, but I cannot find what codepages it supports... Only CP437
then I guess?
Also, it could be more "generic" to bundle it in the form of a CPI/CPX
binary instead of wrapping a dedicated TSR around.
Any chance for a "with sources" release some day?

I will post the program unpacked some day this week.

Alejandro Lieber
Rosario Argentina