## Display Device Driver Reference for OS/2

[prev][next][parent][TOC]

### DSPINSTL Command Language

The DSPINSTL Command Language is highly flexible so that it can accommodate the many different operations that must be performed during the installation and configuration of OS/2 display drivers.

A set of DSPINSTL commands is packaged as a DSP file. Each DSP file must contain a KEY command to tag that DSP file. Then, when a data-chain element is interpreted by DSPINSTL, all DSP files in the current source directory that are tagged with that keyword are interpreted. This mechanism permits automatic execution.

The FILES command tells DSPINSTL which files to copy to the user's hard disk. Date/time checking and file-version checking can be performed as part of the FILES command processing; this helps prevent inappropriate copying of files, an important DSPINSTL safety feature. The FILES command supports the installation of both packed and unpacked files. Packed files can reduce greatly the amount of space consumed on the display-driver developer's diskettes.

The CONFIG, OS2INI, and WININI commands tell DSPINSTL how to update the configuration in the different types of system configuration files. Three separate commands are used because the different types of OS/2 system configuration files require different editing styles. Configuration of OS/2 display drivers is particularly tricky because of the coordinated updates needed in the different OS/2 configuration files.

The CONFIG command is used to update the CONFIG.SYS file. The OS2INI command is used to edit the various INI OS/2 system configuration files ( such as OS2.INI or OS2SYS.INI). The WININI command is used to update the different WIN-OS/2 configuration files (such as WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI).

SET_DRIVER and SET_RESOLUTION also are configuration editing commands. With these two commands, rather than editing a specific configuration file, an OS/2 graphics engine (Gre) function updates the system configuration. This additional level of data abstraction is necessary to support the architecture of the graphics engine, which is yet another complexity supported by the DSPINSTL Command Language.