Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!news From: tcs@mailer.jhuapl.edu (Carl Schelin) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc Subject: Re: What is Ansi.sys?? Message-ID: <1990Dec26.131046.1236@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu> Date: 26 Dec 90 13:10:46 GMT References: <8069.2770a6a0@jetson.uh.edu> <1990Dec22.190906.6442@xrtll.uucp> Sender: news@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Johns Hopkins University - Applied Physics Lab Lines: 57 In article <1990Dec22.190906.6442@xrtll.uucp>, silver@xrtll.uucp (Hi Ho Silver) says: > >In article <8069.2770a6a0@jetson.uh.edu> bchs1b@jetson.uh.edu writes: >$What is Ansi.sys (and its workalikes, Fansi, Nansi etc)? What do they really >$let you do. I am not a programmer but an application user? Is there something >$useful here that I am missing? > > ansi.sys is a device driver that implements some of the ANSI control >sequences. It allows you to move the cursor, set colours, etc. by putting >escape sequences in your output rather than by doing seperate BIOS calls. >It also slows your system's screen output quite badly, which is one reason >why workalikes exist - they generally do it faster. > > Is it useful? As anything other than a gimmick to allow you to have >a multi-coloured DOS prompt, not terribly; since it's an optional device >driver that isn't used by the majority of DOS users, there isn't much >software written that uses it; most software goes with the BIOS or direct >hardware methods, which not only work regardless of whether ansi.sys >is installed, but also work much faster. >-- > __ __ _ | ...!nexus.yorku.edu!xrtll!silver | always >(__ | | | | |_ |_) >----------------------------------< searching > __) | |_ \/ |__ | \ | if you don't like my posts, type | for >_____________________/ find / -print|xargs cat|compress | SNTF I'm sorry, I must respond the the "not terribly" useful quote above. In '85 I was working in a shop where I used a language called MegaBasic. It was very nice (and doesn't work on my current system) and supported 1 meg of program and data which no other basic at the time supported (at least on the PC and as far as I knew). It was very fast BUT had absolutly no screen control to it. You had to use ANSI.Sys to clear the screen and add color to any program along with locate for screen positioning. Also, as a former (can you ever be former) BBS Sysop, I used ANSI escape sequences for all my screens. Finally, many of the finest "free" software that must be cross compilable (i.e., UNIX, DOS, VMS, etc) generally use Termcap which uses Ansi escape sequences. (Check out NetHack, Moria, Larn, Omega for examples). And, there is still the fancy prompt that awes the occasional user "how did you DO that!?!" Here's mine: Prompt $e[0m $h$e[0;34;41;1m$e[37m $e[0;34;1m $t$h$h$h $e[32m($e[33m$p$e[32m)... $e[36m The means to hold the Alt key down and type the numbers on your keypad. This should get you an American Flag, The time in blue without the .seconds, the path in yellow between green parens and all your text in cyan. Type it exactly as you see it except the <> and it is all on one line. Carl Schelin tcs@mailer.jhuapl.edu