If you have even a beginning knowledge of C or Basic, you can learn how to enhance the power, speed, and flexibility of your programs with this Microsoft-authorized guide to MS-DOS 5 programming. MS-DOS provides services, or software routines, that act as an interface between any application program and the computer hardware. Rather than access these services indirectly through your programming language's built-in features, you'll learn to access them directly-with significant advantages!After a brief overview of MS-DOS and the CPU, you'll learn techniques for calling interrupts from both C and Basic. The heart of the book provides detailed information on using the MS-DOS services, organized by programming topic. To illustrate how to use these services, Aitken provides examples for each topic, written in Microsoft QuickC version 2.5 and in Microsoft QuickBasic version 4.5. The code is compatible with most versions of C and Basic for the PC. You'll learn to use MS-DOS services to enable your programs to:Use expanded memory to store dataCommunicate via the serial portDetermine the total capacity and available space on a disk driveRead to and write from any disk fileDetermine the state of the keyboard "lock" keysSet the screen cursor's position and sizeScroll a text window on the screenRespond to mouse movementFor instant access to important information, you'll find reference entries for MS-DOS services at the end of the chapter in which they're discussed. In addition, an appendix provides a complete listing of all the MS-DOS services in the book, arranged both by interrupt and function number and by category.The Essential Guide to MS-DOS 5 Programming is the perfect starting point for exploring and understanding MS-DOS programming. Read Less