System information

Entry Parameters:

Registers DE: Buffer Address

Returned Value:

Console Characters in Buffer

The Read Buffer function reads a line of edited console input into a buffer addressed by registers

DE. Console input is terminated when either input buffer overflows or a carriage return or

line-feed is typed. The Read Buffer takes the form:

DE: +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 ... +n

mx nc cl c2 c3 c4 c5 c6 c7 ... ??

where mx is the maximum number of characters that the buffer will hold, 1 to 255, and nc is the

number of characters read (set by FDOS upon return) followed by the characters read from the

console. If nc < mx, then uninitialized positions follow the last character, denoted by ?? in the

above figure. A number of control functions, summarized in Table 5-3, are recognized during

line editing.

Table 5-3. Edit Control Characters

Character Edit Control Function

rub/del removes and echoes the last character

CTRL-C reboots when at the beginning of line

CTRL-E causes physical end of line

CTRL-H backspaces one character position

CTRL-J (line-feed) terminates input line

5.2 Call Conventions CP/M Operating System Manual

5-16