On Mon, 21 Feb 2000, Neil Padgett wrote:

> Steffen:
> By implementing MUX-12 would any greater utility be gained? That is, would
> it help any other developer?

Hmm, that's hard to tell. MUX-12 is documented within RBIL like that:
--------D-2F1200-----------------------------
INT 2F U - DOS 3.0+ internal - INSTALLATION CHECK

Most functions are marked with this prerequiste:
 SS = DOS DS = DOS kernel data seg (must be using a DOS internal stack)


So this interface is inteded to be used by tools that are called by the
_kernel_ and must call functions of the kernel themselves.
There are general purpose functions to canonalize filenames, flip forward
slashes into backslashes, get/set interrupt vectors; but also special
purpose functions like "Make Buffer Most Recently Used" or "Flush (Disk)
Buffer".
When you glance over the list of these functions, they look like some sort
of shared library/code, because this are functions that have to be
implemented by the kernel for its own useage, but are generally useable
enough to be used by system tools, too, e.g. NLSFUNC, FASTOPEN, DiskCaches
etc. a.s.o.

So, the MSDOS3.0+ kernel offers this interface, but no developer must
announce that his tool uses this interface :-)
Because of SS == DOS DS, the number of tools decrements dramatically,
maybe only callback modules (NLSFUNC, network redirector drivers, ...) are
even able to use this interface properly. However, some functions don't
have this prerequisite.

Bye,

-- 

Steffen Kaiser