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|A |6Happy Hacker |A ^1Keyboard Buffer |Aͺ |6Happy Hacker |A
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^Cby
^CWayne Chesser

   If you type faster than your PC can process your input, you may find yourself 
running into the limitations of the keyboard buffer.  This buffer is where the 
PC holds what you type until it can do something with it.  Normally, this is 
limited to 16 characters, which isn't much when you wish to type a whole line 
while the machine is still thinking about what to do with the previous line.  
This program will help by expanding the buffer to 127 characters.

   The keyboard buffer is a circular buffer that resides in the BIOS segment 
0040:001Eh to 0040:003Dh.  In the IBM PC1 (the earliest version of the IBM PC), 
this buffer can not be relocated or expanded, because the ROM BIOS uses an 
absolute addressing for the circular buffer.  Hence, this utility won't work for 
such machines; sorry.  However, the vast majority of machines now existing are 
not in this category.

   In PC's which followed the PC1 -- that is, the overwhelming majority of PC's 
in use -- this buffer now contains pointers for the buffer in the BIOS data 
area. The pointers are for the start of the buffer, end of the buffer, the 
buffer's head, and the buffer's tail. Now the buffer can be relocated, and 
expanded if it remains within reach of the BIOS data segment. 

   This program is installed in the CONFIG.SYS file as: 

^CDEVICE=BUFFER.SYS

The DOS manual that comes with your computer will explain installing this device 
from the CONFIG.SYS file, if this program needs to reside in a different 
directory or on a drive other than the default drive at boot time. If so, read 
the section about the DEVICE command. 

   BUFFER.SYS is a dummy device driver that will relocate this keyboard buffer 
only if it is loaded within the BIOS data area. If the program is loaded outside 
of the BIOS data area, the buffer will not be initialized, and the program will 
terminate, displaying the message, "Not Initialized." If this should occur, move 
the DEVICE=BUFFER.SYS file to be in front of any other DEVICE= or BUFFERS= 
devices in the CONFIG.SYS file. 

   During the boot process, the BIOS keyboard routine will save the key-codes 
of any keys pressed while the initialization routines are in charge. Then when 
BUFFER.SYS takes over, those keypresses -- if any -- that occurred at boot are 
moved into the new expanded buffer, and any required adjustments are made for 
the character/scancode combinations that were saved during the boot process. 

   Once installed, the keyboard buffer will allow 127 keypresses before the 
buffer fills. Anyone with the type-ahead habit will notice an improvement from 
the time that this program is installed. 

DISK FILES THIS PROGRAM USES:
^FBUFFER.SYS
