Tex-Win
A desktop and editor built from DOS text-mode characters.
Borland C, DOS text mode, keyboard pointer
Author’s notes
Amir Husain · software I wrote
A desktop built entirely out of text-mode characters. There are icons, a title bar and a status line, and every one of them is drawn from the 256 characters the display adapter already had, because a graphics mode cost memory and speed that a shell should not be spending.
The pointer is a character too. The arrow keys move it one cell at a time, the 5 on the keypad opens whatever it is standing on, and the status line at the bottom reports its position as it goes.
The two icons open separate programs. Folder_1 is a menu that sets the desktop pattern and colour, and the desktop takes the new setting as soon as the menu closes. Tex-Writ is a window that F11 and the arrow keys resize, as far as the desktop frame and no further, and Enter turns it into a page to type on. Before either program opens, the desktop saves the screen underneath and paints it back afterwards, so the two appear to run at the same time on a machine that could only run one.
Reading the demonstration
Move the character pointer, change the desktop pattern, then open Tex-Writ. The text window can be resized before entering text.
About this recording and recovery
The desktop in this recording is rebuilt from the recovered source with two broken pointers repaired. The executable in the archive draws the desktop but cannot open its programs.
Archive record
- Author
- Amir Husain
- Date
- c. 1995
- Environment
- Borland C, DOS text mode, keyboard pointer
- Reference
- ATX-SW-TEX-WIN
The software archive preserves dates, implementation notes, and surviving source material. Contact the museum to explore the program’s documentation.