read.me

用TC2实现的DOS多任务功能

CTask - A Multitasking Kernel for C.
Version 2.2, Released 90-10-12.

Public Domain Software written by Thomas Wagner

      Home Address:              Business Address:
      Patschkauer Weg 31         Ferrari electronic GmbH
      D-1000 Berlin 33           Beusselstrasse 27
      Germany                    D-1000 Berlin 21, Germany
                                 Phone: [phone]
                                 Fax:   [phone]

      BIX:  twagner
      UUCP: [e-mail]  (attn: Thomas Wagner)


This software is in the Public Domain. No registration is required,
and no license fees or royalties must be paid. 

You are using this software at your own risk. There is no warranty on
fitness for any purpose, and the author can not be held liable for
any damages whatsoever.

Re-distribution by any media, disk or BBS, is expressly encouraged.
Please distribute freely, but please leave the archives intact when
re-posting. If there is a technical need to split up the archives,
please include this read.me with all parts, and tell the user where
to find the other parts. The on-line version 2.2 consists of two
archives, one with all sources and documentation, the other with the
precompiled libraries only. If you intend to re-compile the sources
anyway, you only need the source archive. The binary archive is
provided for those who want to get started right away, without the
hassle of setting up the compilation environment. If you received
CTask version 2.2 on disk, there is only one self-extracting archive
containing both sources and binaries.


Versions released so far:
   0.1 (Beta)  88-03-01
   1.1         88-07-01
   1.1a        88-12-29
   1.1b        89-05-30
   2.0 	       89-12-24
   2.1         90-07-23
   2.1a        90-08-13
   2.1b        90-08-14
   2.2 (this)  90-10-12  (READ.ME last updated 90-10-16)

If you want to receive future updates, I recommend joining BIX. You
will not only have access to the newest version of CTask, you will
also get direct support from me through E-mail or the CTask support
topic in the ibm.other conference. Please see the manual for
more information on BIX, and for the complete support policy. 

If BIX is too expensive, or for other reasons unavailable to you, I'm
also willing to send you new versions on disk. However, I do have to
charge you for this service. I've been sending out more and more
disks for free with each release, and the postage is starting to
hurt. See the file ORDER.DOC for more information.

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

Version 2.2 was released mainly to correct a number of known bugs in
2.1. To avoid further delays, and continued problems due to the bugs,
I made this version public even though there are two problem areas
remaining:

If you want to use the 80x87 support in CTask, please be aware that
the NDP support is not yet tested. It is quite likely that your
program will crash if you set NDP to true in tskconf.h, so get your
debugger ready. Please report your experiences. Also, floating point
emulation is not supported. The emulation entries apparently are not
reentrant. 

Version 2.2 will not work correctly with Windows 3.0 in enhanced 386
mode if CTask is installed as TSR before starting Windows. The reason
(communication between virtual machines) is known, but a solution
would be rather complex. I will try to solve this problem in the next
release. CTask will work fine with Windows 3.0 if started in a
DOS-window, or if used with the real-mode version.

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

When compiling some of the files, you will get warnings about
unreferenced formal parameters. This is normal, and should be
ignored. The Turbo C pragma for turning off those warnings is not
compatible with Microsoft, so it is not used in the current version.

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

Note that the Turbo C batch and make files refer to "lib" and
"tmake", where Turbo users would normally use "tlib" and "make". This
is to resolve naming conflicts in my own configuration. To use the
files in a "standard" Turbo configuration, you may have to edit the
files, or provide suitable alias definitions.

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

CAUTION: DO NOT use TASM 1.0 to assemble the CTask routines. Version
1.0 of Borland's TASM has severe problems with the extended model
directives, which will cause Assembly time errors, and, if you get
past them, run time crashes.

Versions 1.01 and 2.0 of TASM are safe to use. Please check with
Borland for an update. 

You can also use MASM 5.1 for the TC version, just edit the make
files to change the assembler name.

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

Turbo C++ 1.0 problems

The original release of Turbo C++ 1.0 has a number of bugs in include
files and run-time routines. Patches for the known bugs are available
in the borland conference on BIX, and on other Borland-supported
online services. If you don't have access to BIX, contact Borland for
the patches.

The main problem with CTask is that the definitions for the intrinsic
functions "inportb" and "outportb" are missing from the TC++
header-file "dos.h". This leads to those functions being compiled as
external functions, and the resulting library is model dependent. To
correct this, copy the lines defining the intrinsics from the old TC
2.0 header file into the new dos.h:

  unsigned char _Cdecl __inportb__(int __portid);
  void _Cdecl __outportb__ (int __portid, unsigned char __value);
  #define inportb __inportb__
  #define outportb __outportb__

In this version (2.2) only, the TSK.H file also contains those
definitions. They will likely be removed from tsk.h in future
releases.

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

The manual included is ready for printing. No fancy formatting 
was used, and the page length was chosen to fit the short 
American sized paper. The only control character your printer 
must understand is the formfeed. 

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

Well, this guy is giving all that away - there must be a catch 
somewhere, you say? Right you are! You are REQUIRED to read my 
sales blurb in the file FERRARI.DOC in this library IMMEDIATELY, 
or this software will self-destruct in thirty seconds... ;-) 

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

Files in the archives:

                Binary archive (CTBIN22.LZH)

Compiled CTask kernel and support routines

   READ.ME      This file

   CTASKMS.LIB  CTask kernel, Microsoft C (any model)
   CTSUPMSL.LIB CTask support routines, MS-C (large model)

   CTASKTC.LIB  CTask kernel, Turbo C (any model except Tiny & Huge)
   CTSUPTCL.LIB CTask support routines, Turbo C (large model)


                Source Archive (CTASK22.LZH)

Documentation

   READ.ME      This file
   CTASK.DOC    Documentation for CTask, ready for printing
   FERRARI.DOC  Commercial advertising, required reading
   ORDER.DOC    Information on ordering CTask disks

   CTASK.DEF    Periscope debugger record definition file

Include Files

   KBD.H        Keyboard scan code and flag definitions for Hotkeys
   PRT.H        Include file required for printer driver
   SIO.H        Include file required for serial driver
   TSK.H        Include file required for CTask kernel
   TSKCONF.H    CTask configuration options (C and Assembler)
   TSKDEB.H     Debug mode configuration (C and Assembler)
   TSKLOCAL.H   Include file for internal CTask use
   TSKPRF.H     Function prototypes for printf replacement routines
   TSKSUP.H     Include file required for support routines

   TSK.MAC      Assembler include file


Source files for the CTask kernel
                
   TSKASM.ASM   Scheduler and miscellaneous ASM routines
   TSKBIOS.ASM  AT BIOS wait/post handler (INT 15)
   TSKDOS.ASM   DOS multiplex interface for CTask
   TSKEMS.ASM   EMS support routines
   TSKINT17.ASM BIOS printer interface (INT 17)
   TSKKBD.ASM   Keyboard interface and hotkey handler
   TSKNDP.ASM   Numerioc coprocessor support routines
   TSKPRTI.ASM  Printer driver interrupt stack switcher
   TSKQUE.ASM   Queue handling
   TSKRES.ASM   CTask residency check
   TSKSEC.ASM   DOS and Keyboard interface routines
   TSKSIOI.ASM  Serial driver interrupt stack switcher
   TSKSTCK.ASM  Stack switch routine
   TSKSTUB.ASM  Code sharing function stubs/entry table
   TSKTIM.ASM   Timer tick interface (INT 8)

   TSKBUF.C     Buffer events
   TSKCNT.C     Counter events
   TSKFLG.C     Flag events
   TSKGRP.C     Group creation/removal
   TSKHOT.C     Hotkey creation
   TSKINST.C    Main kernel installation/removal
   TSKMAIN.C    Main CTask installation routines
   TSKMEMW.C    Memory watches
   TSKMSG.C     Mailbox events
   TSKNAME.C    Name searching
   TSKPORW.C    Port watches
   TSKPIP.C     Pipe events
   TSKPRT.C     Printer driver
   TSKRSC.C     Resource events
   TSKSIO.C     Serial I/O driver
   TSKSUB.C     Subroutines for internal CTask use
   TSKTASK.C    Main task related routines
   TSKTICK.C    Ticker handling
   TSKTOPS.C    Timeout and watch routines
   TSKTSUB.C    Timer/watch helper subroutines
   TSKTTSK.C    Timer task
   TSKTUTL.C    Task utility subroutines
   TSKUTIL.C    Miscellaneous utilitiy routines
   TSKWPIP.C    Word pipe events

Support routine source files

   CONOUT.C     Console output support
   TSKALLOC.C   Memory allocation RTL interface
   TSKSNAP.C    Snapshot dump utility
   TSKPRF.ASM   Printf replacement routines

Sample application sources

   MINRES.ASM   Minimal resident CTask
   TESTMOD.ASM  Check for model independence

   RES.C        CTask TSR
   SNAP.C       Snapshot dump
   SPAWN.C      Spawn DOS
   TEST.C       General Test
   TPRT.C       Test printer driver
   TSIO.C       Test serial driver

Batch files to make kernel and samples

   MS.BAT       Make Kernel and support routines, MS-C
   SAMPMS.BAT   Make Sample applications, MS-C
   CTC.BAT      Make Kernel and support routines, Turbo C
   SAMPTC.BAT   Make Sample applications, Turbo C
   TCH.BAT      Make Kernel and support routines, Turbo C Huge model

Microsoft Make files for Microsoft C/MASM

   CTASK.MS     Make Kernel
   CTSUP.MS     Make Support Routines

   MINRES.MS    Make MINRES.ASM
   RES.MS       Make RES.C
   SNAP.MS      Make SNAP.C
   SPAWN.MS     Make SPAWN.C
   TEST.MS      Make TEST.C
   TESTMOD.MS   Make TESTMOD.ASM
   TPRT.MS      Make TPRT.C
   TSIO.MS      Make TSIO.C

Borland Make files for Turbo C/TASM

   CTASK.TC     Make Kernel
   CTSUP.TC     Make Support Routines

   CTASKH.TC    Make Kernel, Huge model
   CTSUPH.TC    Make Support Routines, Huge model
                
   MINRES.TC    Make MINRES.ASM
   RES.TC       Make RES.C
   SNAP.TC      Make SNAP.C
   SPAWN.TC     Make SPAWN.C
   TEST.TC      Make TEST.C
   TESTMOD.TC   Make TESTMOD.ASM
   TPRT.TC      Make TPRT.C
   TSIO.TC      Make TSIO.C