From: carlyle@tocnet.com (Jeffrey Carlyle)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer,alt.msdos.programmer,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ part 1/5
Followup-To: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Organization: Stratoware
Sender: carlyle@tocnet.com (Jeffrey Carlyle)
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
Reply-To: carlyle@tocnet.com (Jeffrey Carlyle)
Summary: Frequently asked questions by DOS programmers with tested answers.

Archive-name: msdos-programmer-faq/part2
Comp-os-msdos-programmer-archive-name: dos-faq-pt1.txt
Posting-frequency: 20 days
Last-modified: 20 Mar 1996

------------------------------

Subject: comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ part 1/5

This is part 1 of the frequently asked questions list for the newsgroup
comp.os.msdos.programmer.

Part 1:
  Section 1.  General FAQ and Newsgroup Information
  Section 2.  General Reference

------------------------------

Subject: comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ

comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ Version 2.06

Copyright 1996 by Jeffrey Carlyle, Stratoware. All rights reserved. This
article is not in the public domain, but it may be redistributed so long
as this notice, the acknowledgments, and the information on obtaining the
latest copy of this list are retained and no fee is charged. The code
fragments may be used freely;  credit would be polite. This FAQ is not to
be included in any static archive (e.g. CD-ROM or book); however, a pointer
to the FAQ may be included.

 =============================
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
 =============================

Part 1:
  Section 1.  General FAQ and Newsgroup Information
  Section 2.  General Reference
Part 2:
  Section 3.  Compile and Link
  Section 4.  Keyboard
Part 3:
  Section 5.  Disks and files
  Section 6.  Serial ports (COM ports)
Part 4:
  Section 7.  Other hardware questions and problems
  Section 8.  Other software questions and problems
Part 5:
  Section 9.  Downloading
  Section 10. Vendors and products

------------------------------

Subject: Section 1.  General FAQ and Newsgroup Information

  <q:1.01> - What is this article for?
  <q:1.02> - Who has contributed to this article? 
  <q:1.03> - How can I search this article for a particular topic?
  <q:1.04> - Are the answers guaranteed to be correct and complete?
  <q:1.05> - What is comp.os.msdos.programmer about? 
  <q:1.06> - Is comp.os.msdos.programmer just for C programmers?
  <q:1.07> - What is comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer?
  <q:1.08> - Is comp.os.msdos.programmer available as a mailing list?
  <q:1.09> - What's this "netiquette"?
  <q:1.10> - How can I learn more about Usenet?
  <q:1.11> - What other technical newsgroups should I know about?
  <q:1.12> - Where are FAQ lists archived?
  <q:1.13> - Where can I get the latest copy of this FAQ list?

------------------------------
  
Subject: <q:1.01> - What is this article for? 
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 95 15:34:00 CDT

    This is the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list for the newsgroup
    comp.os.msdos.programmer. This list is maintained in versions; new
    questions and revised questions in this version are not marked do to
    the restructuring of the FAQ; however, in future versions new or
    revised questions will be marked with "*new*" or "*revised*" in the
    subject. This list is posted every 20 days.

    FAQ lists are intended to reduce the noise level in their newsgroups
    that results from the repetition of the same questions, correct
    answers, wrong answers, corrections to the wrong answers,
    corrections to the corrections, debate, etc.
    
    This list should serve as a repository of the canonical "best"
    answers to the questions in it.  The names of folks who have helped
    to improve this FAQ list are listed in <q:1.02> - "Who has contributed
    to this article?".
    
------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.02> - Who has contributed to this article? 
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 95 12:00:00 CDT

    This list is maintained and edited by Jeffrey Carlyle. To contact
    him send email to <mailto:carlyle@tocnet.com> or via surfact mail
    to:

    Jeffrey Carlyle
    Stratoware Software Services
    297 Meadowlark Trail
    Bowling Green, KY 42101-9427

    The major contributor to this list is Stan Brown, the former list 
    maintainer. Most of this list was written by Stan. 

    Many articles posted in comp.os.msdos.programmer sparked ideas or
    provided information for the first version of this list.  Though
    they are not responsible for any errors, thanks are due to the
    following persons for posted articles or private email that led to
    improvements in this FAQ list:

    Jamshid Afshar, Mark Aitchison, Sanjay Aiyagari, George Almasi,
    Aaron Auseth, Robert Baker, Preston Bannister, Scott Barman, Denis
    Beauregard, Per Bergland, Mike Black, Chris Blum, Ron Bodkin, Mark
    Brader, Jon Brinkmann, Andrew James Bromage, Glynn Brooks, Paul
    Brooks, Ralf Brown, Stan Brown, Shaun Burnett, D'Arcy J.M. Cain,
    Jeffrey Carlyle, Raymond Chen, Kelly Cooper, Denny de Jonge, Eric
    DeVolder, Alan Drew, Paul Ducklin, Gary Dueck, Roland Eriksson, Mark
    Evans, Markus Fischer, George Forsman, Roger Fulton, Vincent
    Giovannone, Robert Grunloh, B.Haible, Janos Haide, Klaus Hartnegg,
    Kris Heidenstrom, Tom Haapanen, Joel Hoffman, Ari Hovila, Chin Huang,
    Daniel P Hudson, Joe Huffman, Michael Holin, Mike Iarrobino, Byrial
    Jensen, Rune Jorgensen, Ajay Kamdar, Everett Kaser, JJ Keijser, Jeff
    Kellam, Jen Kilmer, Reinhard Kirchner, Dave Kirsch, Chad Knudsen,
    Samuel Ko, Jan Kotas, Janne Kukonlehto, Robert Luursema, Benjamin Lee,
    Stephen Lee, Jim Lynch, Greg Malknecht, Sidney Markowitz, Jim Marks,
    Dimitri Matzarakis, Fred McCall, Ken McKee, Doug Merrett, Tom Milner,
    Bill Moore, Duncan Murdoch, Steve Murphy, Daniel Neri, Mert Nickerson,
    David Nugent, John Oldenburg, David Pape, Keith Petersen, Karl
    Riedling, Arthur Rubin, Gerald Ruderman, Timo Salmi, Tapio Sand,
    Charles Sandmann, John Schmid, Russell Schulz, Huseyin Sevay, Adam
    Seychell, Ajay Shah, Bob Smith, Bob Stout, Sean Sullivan, Steve Summit,
    Tom Swingle, Anders Thulin, Curt Tilmes, Rick Watkins, Ya-Gui Wei,
    Morten Welinder, Joe Wells, Scott Winder, Gregory Youngblood, Eli
    Zaretski, khill@vax1.umkc.edu

------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.03> - How can I search this article for a particular topic?

    To search for a particular topic, save this article to a text file
    and use your favorite editor's find function to search for a word.

    You can use the MS-DOS Editor to search for a topic. Run the editor
    and load the FAQ. Press ALT+S to activate the search menu then press
    F. In the box that says find what enter the word you want to look for.
    When you are completed, press enter. If a match is found EDIT will 
    highlight it. If that is not what you were looking for press F3 and
    EDIT will show you the next match.

------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.05> - Are the answers guaranteed to be correct and complete?
Date: Wed, 05 Sep 94 15:34:00 CDT

    There has been an attempt to check all facts, but THERE IS NO WARRANTY
    ON THE CODE OR ON THE TECHNIQUES DESCRIBED HEREIN. Please send
    corrections to carlyle@tocnet.com. All the code has been tested; but
    the testing may not have been perfect, and machines and configurations
    vary. (Except where otherwise noted, C code was tested with MSC 5,
    BC++ 2.0, or BC++ 4.x.)

    The mention of particular books or programs must not be construed to
    reflect unfavorably on any that are not mentioned.

------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.06> - What is comp.os.msdos.programmer about?
Date: Wed, 05 Sep 94 15:34:00 CDT

    comp.os.msdos.programmer (comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer until September
    1990) concerns programming for MS-DOS systems.  The article "USENET
    Readership report for Jul 94" in news.lists shows 120,000 readers of
    this newsgroup worldwide.  Traffic (exclusive of crossposts) was 1981
    articles aggregating 3.1 Megabytes. It ranked as the 79th most popular
    newsgroup.

    Much of our traffic is about language products (chiefly from Borland
    and Microsoft).  More programming topics focus on C than on any one
    other language, but we are not just for C programmers (see <q:1.07> -
    "Is comp.os.msdos.programmer just for C programmers?").

    Since most MS-DOS systems run on hardware that is roughly compatible
    with the IBM PC, on Intel 8088, 80188, or 80x86 chips, we tend to
    get a lot of questions and answers about programming other parts of
    the hardware.

------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.07> - Is comp.os.msdos.programmer just for C programmers?
    
    No, it is for all programmers who want to share information about
    programming in MS-DOS and DOS replacements like 4DOS.  Programs and
    questions are also posted in Pascal, assembly, and other languages
    (including MS-DOS batch programming.)

    Why does the newsgroup seem to be so C-oriented sometimes?  There
    are two reasons.  First, comp.lang.c and comp.lang.pascal have
    evolved in different directions.  comp.lang.pascal welcomes vendor-
    specific discussion, such as Turbo Pascal.  Since so many of TP's
    features are tailored to programming on PCs and in MS-DOS, Turbo
    Pascal programmers tend to find DOS questions welcomed there, so
    that comp.os.msdos.programmer gets less of the "DOS in Turbo Pascal"
    traffic.  On the other hand, comp.lang.c has stayed closer to
    talking only about the C language, and vendor-specific or operating-
    system-specific questions are not welcome.  This tends to push
    questions about disks, DOS file structure, video, the keyboard,
    TSRs, etc. to comp.os.msdos.programmer even when those programs are
    written in C.

    This FAQ is definitely C-oriented, not because that's necessarily
    best but because I tried to stick to what I could verify personally.
    As a C programmer (with some assembler), I could most carefully
    verify solutions in C or assembler.  I felt that short, clear
    programs could be published in just one language and programmers
    could translate them into their languages of choice.  But the FAQ
    list also contains several long programs written only in C; this is
    a defect with no obvious remedy.  Most answers that point to source
    code at archive sites include both C- and Pascal-language source
    when available.
  
------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.08> - What is comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer?

    comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer is the old name of comp.os.msdos.programmer, 
    and has been obsolete since September 1990.  However, many systems have
    not removed the old group, or have removed it but aliased it to the
    new name.  This means that some people still think they're posting
    to comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer even though they're actually posting to
    comp.os.msdos.programmer.

    You can easily verify the non-existence of comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer
    by reference to the "List of Active Newsgroups" posted to news.groups.
    It's available at:
    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/active-newsgroups/part1>

    (For more info see <q:1.13> - "Where are FAQ lists archived?")
  
------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.09> - Is comp.os.msdos.programmer available as a mailing
        list?

    Sorry, no.

------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.10> - What's this "netiquette"?

    Netiquette is good Usenet etiquette.  It includes basic rules like
    the ones below.  (See also <q:1.11> - "How can I learn more about
    Usenet?")

    - Always read a newsgroup for a reasonable time before you post an
      article to it.

    - Pick the one right group for your article; don't crosspost unless
      absolutely necessary.  If you absolutely must post an article to
      more than one group, do crosspost it and don't post the same
      article separately to each group.  See <q:1.12> - "What other
      technical newsgroups should I know about?" when considering where
      to post an article.

    - Before you post a question, make sure you're posting to the right
      newsgroup; the best way to do that is to observe the preceding
      rule.  Check the group's FAQ list (if it has one) to make sure
      that your question isn't already answered there; see <q:1.13> "Where
      are FAQ lists archived?".

    - When you post a question, if you ask for email responses then
      promise to post a summary.  Keep your promise.  And make it a real
      summary: don't just append all the email you got.  Instead, write
      your own (brief) description of the solution:  this is the best
      way to make sure you really understand it.

    - Before you post a follow-up, read the other follow-ups.  Very
      often you'll find that someone else has already made the point you
      had in mind.

    - When someone posts a question, if you want to know the answer
      don't post a "me, too".  Instead send email to the poster asking
      him or her to share responses with you.

    - When posting a follow-up to another posted article, remove all
      headers and signature lines from the old article; just keep the
      line "In <article>, so-and-so writes:".  Also cut the original
      article down as much as possible; just keep enough of it to remind
      readers of the context.

    - Keep lines in posted articles to 72-75 characters.  Many
      newsreaders chop off column 81 or arbitrarily insert a newline
      there, which makes longer lines difficult or impossible to read.
      But you need to keep well below 80 characters per line to allow
      for the > characters that get inserted when other people post
      follow-ups to your article.

    - Keep your signature to 4 lines or less (including any graphics),
      and for heaven's sake make sure it doesn't get posted twice in
      your article.

    - Don't post email without first obtaining the permission of the
      sender.
    
------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.11> - How can I learn more about Usenet?
    
    There are two important newsgroups for learning about how Usenet and
    newsreader software works:

    - news.announce.newusers contains periodic postings that everybody
      is asked to read before posting anything to Usenet.  (In theory,
      all new users are subscribed to news.announce.newusers
      automatically.  But in practice not all newsreader software does
      that, so that many people violate the guidelines given there
      simply because they don't know about them.)

    - news.newusers.questions is described as "Q & A for users new to
      the Usenet".  But new and long-time users can ask or answer
      questions about Usenet and newsreader software there.  There's an
      important article, "Welcome to news.newusers.questions! (weekly
      posting)", that everyone is asked to read before posting to
      news.newusers.questions.  (See below for ways to get a copy of
      that article.)

    The following postings in news.announce.newusers might be considered
    the "mandatory course" for new users:

        Introduction to news.announce.newusers
        What is Usenet?
        Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
        Rules for posting to Usenet
        A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
        Hints on writing style for Usenet
        Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette

    The articles mentioned above are downloadable via ftp from
    rtfm.mit.edu in the following files:

    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/news-newusers-intro>
            Welcome to news.newusers.questions! (weekly posting)
    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/news-announce-intro/part1>
            Introduction to news.announce.newusers
    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/what-is-usenet/part1>
            What is Usenet?
    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet-faq/part1>
            Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/posting-rules/part1>
            Rules for posting to Usenet
    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet-primer/part1>
            A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet-writing-style/part1>
            Hints on writing style for Usenet
    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/emily-postnews/part1>
            Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette

    For rtfm.mit.edu instructions, see <q:1.13> "Where are FAQ lists
    archived?"
    
------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.12> - What other technical newsgroups should I know about?
Date: Wed, 02 Oct 94 15:34:00 CDT

    Caution:  Some of these newsgroups have specialized charters; you'll
    probably get flamed (and deserve it) if you post to an inappropriate
    group.  Most groups have FAQ lists that will tell you what's
    appropriate.  Don't post a request for the FAQ list; instead,
    retrieve it yourself: see <q:1.13> - "Where are FAQ lists archived?"

    - misc.forsale.computers.d and misc.forsale.computers.pc-clone are
      where you post notices of equipment, software, or computer books
      that you want to sell.  Please don't post or crosspost those
      notices to comp.os.msdos.programmer.

    - comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.* groups (formerly part of
      comp.windows.ms.programmer):  Similar to comp.os.msdos.programmer,
      but focus on programming for the MS-Windows platform.

    - comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware is for more hardware-oriented discussions
      of the machines that run DOS.

    - the various comp.lang.* groups for articles and questions on the
      programming languages.  Caution:  some groups welcome discussions
      that are operating-system dependent or vendor specific; others do
      not.  For example, comp.lang.c is definitely _not_ for questions
      about programming DOS or PC system features, even if the programs
      are written in C.  

    - comp.binaries.ibm.pc.wanted: AFTER you have looked in the other
      groups, this is the place to post a request for a particular
      binary program.

    - comp.archives.msdos.announce (moderated) explains how to use the
      archive sites, especially Garbo and SimTel, and lists files
      uploaded to them.  Discussions belong in comp.archives.msdos.d,
      which replaced comp.binaries.ibm.pc.archives in December 1992.

    - comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d is for discussions about programs posted in
      comp.binaries.ibm.pc, and only those programs.  This is a good
      place to report bugs in the programs, but not to ask where to find
      them (see cbip.wanted, above).  comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d is NOT
      supposed to be a general PC discussion group.

    - comp.sources.misc: a moderated group for source code for many
      computer systems.  It tends to get lots of Unix stuff, but you may
      also pick up some DOS-compatible code here.

    - alt.sources: an unmoderated group for source code.  Guidelines are
      posted periodically.

    - comp.os.msdos.djgpp is specifically for support of DJGPP. For more
      information on DJGPP see <q:10.06> - What and where is DJGPP?
    
    - comp.os.msdos.programmer.turbovision is specifically for
      programming in Turbo Vision.
    
    - rec.games.programmer discusses many graphics programming topics.
    
    - Garbo-Ann is a moderated one-way mailing list which is used
      by Garbo MsDos and Windows archive managers to announce new
      additions to Garbo collections. This is for those who cannot
      subscribe to the comp.archives.msdos.announce newsgroup.

      To subscribe to Garbo-Ann send a message to
      Majordomo@Garbo.uwasa.fi using the format below.

        To: Majordomo@Garbo.uwasa.fi
        Subject: subscribe

        subscribe garbo-ann youremail@somewhere.net.land

    - MSDOS-Ann is a moderated one-way mailing list which is used by
      SimTel, the Coast to Coast Software Repository (tm), to announce
      new additions to the msdos collection. This is for those who cannot
      subscribe to the comp.archives.msdos.announce newsgroup.

      To subscribe to Msdos-Ann send a message to
      listserv@SimTel.Coast.NET using the format below.

        To: listserv@SimTel.Coast.NET
        Subject: subscribe

        subscribe msdos-ann

------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.13> - Where are FAQ lists archived?
    
    Very possibly the FAQ list you want is already at your site.  Check
    the newsgroup news.answers; if your site doesn't carry news.answers,
    check comp.answers, rec.answers, etc., according to the top-level
    name in the FAQ list's "home" newsgroup.  Articles are posted to the
    *.answers groups in a way that should make them last until the next
    versions are posted.  If they expire sooner at your site, you might
    want to lobby your sysadmin to treat the moderated *.answers groups
    as a special case and grant them longer expiration times than other
    groups.

    To ftp most FAQ lists, connect to rtfm.mit.edu, and change to
    directory /pub/usenet/news.answers.  The name of the file that you
    want is the Archive-name from the top of the article.  For instance,
    if the Archive-name is software-eng/part1 you would retrieve
    /pub/usenet/news.answers/software-eng/part1.

    By email (only if you have no ftp access, please), the server is
    mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu .  It accepts "send" commands that omit the
    leading "/pub/" from file names; for example:

        send usenet/news.answers/software-eng/part1

    For full instructions about the mail server, send it a message
    consisting of these two lines:

        help
        index

    Not just FAQ lists, but every article listed in the "List of
    Periodic Informational Postings" (LoPIP) can be obtained by ftp or
    email from rtfm.mit.edu.  If you have an old copy of an
    informational article, look for an "Archive-name" at the beginning;
    rtfm.mit.edu stores it under that name in /pub/usenet/news.answers.
    If the article has no Archive-name, check the first name on the
    Newsgroups line and change to that directory under /pub/usenet.

    Or send email >>> with valid reply-to address << to brown@ncoast.org
    and you'll receive my canned instructions (about 8K) for retrieving
    FAQ lists for most newsgroups, including a few that aren't archived
    at rtfm.mit.edu.  (This offer may be withdrawn without notice
    depending on system constraints.)
    
------------------------------

Subject: <q:1.14> - Where can I get the latest copy of this FAQ list?
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 95 12:00:00 CDT

    You can retrieve the latest version of this list as

    <ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/doc-net/dosfv206.zip>

    Check the date before downloading, to make sure that the archived
    version is actually newer than what you have.

    Like most FAQ lists, this one is archived at rtfm.mit.edu and a
    number of mirror sites.  If you have ftp access, retrieve either of
    these identical files:

    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/msdos-programmer-faq/faq>
    <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.os.msdos.programmer/dos-faq>

    If you have no ftp access, see <q:1.13> "Where are FAQ lists archived?"
    for instructions on retrieving it by email.

------------------------------

Subject: Section 2.  General Reference

  <q:2.01> - Are there any good on-line references for PC hardware
             components?
  <q:2.02> - Are there any good on-line references for PC interrupts?
  <q:2.03> - What and where is "Ralf Brown's interrupt list"?
  <q:2.04> - Where can I find lex, yacc, and language grammars?
  <q:2.05> - What's the best book to learn programming?
  <q:2.06> - Why won't my code work?
  <q:2.07> - Are there any good sources of example code?
  <q:2.08> - What and where is "SNIPPETS"?

------------------------------

Subject: <q:2.01> - Are there any good on-line references for PC
        hardware components?
    
    Good reports of HELPPC21 have been posted.  It is downloadable as

    <ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/msdos/info/helppc21.zip>
    <ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/programming/helppc21.zip>

    This hypertext system contains much information on ports and other
    hardware, as well as some overlap with Ralf Brown's interrupt list
    (1.17).  It is shareware ($25).
    
------------------------------

Subject: <q:2.02> - Are there any good on-line references for PC
        interrupts?
    
    The definitive work is Ralf Brown's interrupt list; see <q:2.03>.
    
------------------------------

Subject: <q:2.03> - What and where is "Ralf Brown's interrupt list"?
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 95 12:00:00 CDT

    This is megabytes of information on documented and (officially)
    undocumented BIOS and DOS interrupts, DOS tables, and interrupts
    hooked by many software packages.

    The distribution files contain not only the actual list, but also
    a collection of utilities and conversion programs for the list.
    The list is downloadable from:

        <ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos/info/inter*.zip>
        <ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/programming/inter*.zip>

    Updates are announced every few months in
    comp.archives.msdos.announce.
    
------------------------------

Subject: <q:2.04> - Where can I find lex, yacc, and language grammars?
    
    The FAQ list of the comp.compilers newsgroup answers this for Basic,
    C, Pascal, and other languages.  See <q:1.13> "Where are FAQ lists
    archived?"
    
------------------------------

Subject: <q:2.05> - What's the best book to learn programming?
    
    Sorry, this FAQ list cannot settle religious arguments.

    Much of the heat over this topic arises because each person believes
    that the book that he or she learned from is the best book.  But
    different people have very different experiences of the same book.
    The only person who can tell you which is the best book for learning
    a given topic is you.

    Your best bet is to go to a fairly well-stocked bookstore when you
    have a couple of hours to spare.  Start at one end of the shelf and
    work your way methodically through every book that looks like it
    might cover what you want to learn.  Look at the tables of contents;
    read a page or two from each book.  Then make your decision.  If
    money is a problem, or if you're not sure of your choice, check out
    your top two or three from your library.

------------------------------

Subject: <q:2.06> - Why won't my code work?
    
    First you need to try to determine whether the problem is in your
    use of the programming language or in your use of MS-DOS and your PC
    hardware.  (Your manual should tell you which features are standard
    and which are vendor- or MS-DOS- or PC-specific.  You _have_ read
    your manual carefully, haven't you?)

    If the feature that seems to be working wrong is something related
    to your PC hardware or to the internals of MS-DOS, this group is the
    right place to ask.  (Please check this FAQ list first, to make sure
    your question isn't already answered here.)

    On the other hand, if your problem is with the programming language,
    the comp.lang hierarchy (including comp.lang.pascal and comp.lang.c)
    is probably a better resource.  Please read the other group's FAQ
    list thoroughly before posting.  (These exist in comp.lang.c,
    comp.lang.c++, comp.lang.modula3, comp.lang.lisp, comp.lang.perl;
    they may exist in other groups as well.)  It's almost never a good
    idea to crosspost between comp.os.msdos.programmer and a language
    group.

    Before posting in either place, try to make your program as small as
    possible while still exhibiting the bad behavior.  Sometimes this
    alone is enough to show you where the trouble is.  Also edit your
    description of the problem to be as short as possible.  This makes
    it look more like you tried to solve the problem on your own, and
    makes people more inclined to try to help you.  See also <q:1.10>
    "What's this 'netiquette'?"

------------------------------

Subject: <q:2.07> - Are there any good sources of example code?

    Bob Stout maintains a very large archive called SNIPPETS; see
    <q:2.08>.

------------------------------

Subject: <q:2.08> - What and where is "SNIPPETS?"

    Excert from the SNIPPETS FAQ follows:

        The SNIPPETS archive, maintained by Bob Stout, contains public
        domain/freeware portable C/C++ source code & instructional text.
        There are more than 500 files, including:

            Approx. 56,000 lines of code + approx. 10,000 lines of
                tutorials.
            Approx. 30% PC-specific, 70% portable
            Approx. 6% C++-specific, 94% C/C++

        The PC-specific functions are system-level utility code - no
        multimedia or GUI code. Tested on all popular PC compilers plus
        Unix compilers where possible. An eclectic collection with
        everything from macros to complete cut-and-paste C/C++ code
        solutions & utilities, along with FAQ and instructional files.

    The SNIPPETS distribution file is created in the form of
    SNIPdddd.xxx, where "dddd" is the release date and "xxx" is the
    archive utility extension.

    SNIPDIFF.xxx updates a previous version of SNIPPETS to a new
    release.

    Internet locations to get SNIPPETS and SNIPDIFF via anonymous ftp:

        ftp.brokersys.com     /pub/snippets (.TAZ (tar.Z) available)
          (This is the official SNIPPETS Internet distribution site.)
        ftp.Coast.NET         /SimTel/msdos/c (also Simtel CD-ROM)
        connectn.acs.niu.edu  /bbc/rbbs-pc/ra/files/c
        juge.com              /c/file/c
        ftp.funet.fi          /pub/msdos/Simtel/c (Europe)

    World-Wide Web sites

        http://www.brokersys.com/snippets/
        http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/simtel-msdos/c/ (Europe)

------------------------------

Subject: End

(End of comp.os.msdos.programmer FAQ Version 2.06 Part 1/5)
(This text is copyright 1996 by Jeffrey Carlyle. All rights reserved.)
