Original from  Eddy Thilleman  to Denis Tonn on 01-06-1999
Original Subject: Dumping DOS-think

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 DT> DOSCALL.DLL is not a file, it is strictly an "alais" mapping
 DT> of the kernel. 
 
ET> I guess DOSCALL.DLL refers to the DOSCALL1.DLL file?

 No, it is an "alias" reference to kernel API's. Most (all?) of the 
DOSCALL references end up mapping to callgates into the kernel. It is 
mostly used when building 16 bit apps. 32 bit apps will call DOSCALL1
(which in turn may go through a callgate also mapped into the DOSCALL
alias). 

ET> Why is this?

 Needed to build applications that call kernel entry points. It allows
the loader to map an "entry point" in the EXE header to a callgate 
selector in the code. The linker must have some way of "signalling" 
the loader that the fixup is for a callgate address. The DOSCALL
aliasing allows the linker to build the proper header entries. 


   Denis       

 All opinions are my very own, IBM has no claim upon them
. 
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