XCONOUT2.XDD ============ This piece of code implements a device /dev/xconout2 to MiNT. Once installed it doesn't do anything at all, which is why it should be quite save to install it even if you don't actually always use it. If you open /dev/xconout2 (which can only be done by one program) a new routine will be installed as a xconout2 handler. After this all data being written to the console, may it be any program writing directly to /dev/console or any daemon which was started with stdout pointing to /dev/console or even MiNT's internal debugging routines is not printed but buffered instead. So if you write a program which opens and selects this device for reading you'll be able to catch everything which might possibly destroy the screen contents under any kind of graphic application. If you should want to print the data to the console anyway, you can do this by writing it back to /dev/xconout2. Note that both read and write calls will never block. The only reason why this appears as a device driver is that a user level program doesn't need any MiNT specific functions (contrary to the stuff implemented in W0R8) and it's quite save: In case of a program crash the file will be closed by MiNT, which will install the original routine again. So even in cases of severe program crashes there's no chance of the vector pointing to abandoned memory and thus perhaps crashing the whole system any more (as it sometimes did in W0R8). BUGS: None (?). KNOWN FEATURES: Doesn't use XBRA and things like these. I very much doubt that under a multitasking environment it's very clever to change vectors from elsewhere that inside the OS itself. So I hope there isn't any program which will cause greater problems. Anyway: USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK! THERE'S NO WARRANTY! ciao, TeSche