> In this case i was looking at my getch() function, which uses INT16.
 > Unfortunately, there are at least three types of k/boards commonly in
 > use, and they're read with different values in AH 0x01,0x11,i forget the
 > third .

Should be only two: XT keyboard and extended (101) keyboard.

 > So in order to make this function realize, which one to use i have
 > to access the CMOS to get the KB IDbyte, and set AH accordingly.
 > A #define would've been beutiful, but the way it is, the IDbyte has to be
 > fetched on each call or placed in a static char on the
 > first call, but that still adds an if statement.

But examining a local variable doesn't involve a lot of overhead compared
with poking around in lower memory.

static char ext_kbd = (char)-1;

static int
getkbdchar(void)
{
    if (ext_kbd == (char)-1)
        ext_kbd = (char *)MK_FP(x,y) & 0x10;
    return int16(ext_kbd | 1);
}

.. or something similar, however it is that you call int 16h and at
whatever address the extended keyboard byte is at (sorry, it's been years
since I last dealt with this so I don't recall the details).

--- MaltEd/2 1.0.b6