Richard,
In the four days this post hase been running, and the hundreds of words, (maybe thousands as your posts are quite long), you could have written one yourself. Here are three links that probably have most of what you need. If someone had such a routine, you would have to change it to make it work with your particular hardware anyway. I've used alot of functions of the typical HD44780 display, but not all at once. I could piece it all together, but you would still have to change it for your app. I really don't think there's all that many possibilities.

http://www.8052.com/codelib/charlcd.zip
http://www.8052.com/codelib/lcd_kepad.asm
http://www.8052.com/codelib/4...e%20Header

I see your point and I see Erik's point. Neither of you is going to change the other's view, so just drop it and write it.

Jon