Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!shelby!csli!gandalf
From: gandalf@csli.STANFORD.EDU (Juergen Wagner)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Where oh where is my directory
Message-ID: <8279@csli.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: 25 Mar 89 04:00:30 GMT
References: <7712@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Sender: gandalf@csli.Stanford.EDU (Juergen Wagner)
Reply-To: gandalf@csli.stanford.edu (Juergen Wagner)
Organization: Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford U.
Lines: 42

In article <7712@pyr.gatech.EDU> perrone@loligo.UUCP (Perrone Ford) writes:
>What I am trying to accompish is to read the directory 
>entries into a buffer and then print the buffer out in the
>middle of a graphics routine

Basically, there are two ways: call a program like "ls" (UNIX), or do it
yourself. I reckon your problem is not an ANSI/non-ANSI problem, it's more
an operating system problem.

>#include <stdio.h>
>#include <grphics.h>  /*  Maybe curses  */
>main () 
>{
>char *listing;
>listing = system("dir");
>initgraph = DETECT;
>initgraph(&graphdriver, &graphmode);
>outtext(listing);
>}

Sure your screen gets trashed. The problem is that your call to "dir" doesn't
return a list of file names neatly packed into a string, it returns an
integer (probably :-). I have no idea what exactly is possible on your system
but try to look for one of the following:

	(a) Something like opendir(), readdir(), closedir() to
	    access directory entries, and collect them into a
	    string. Even better, print them as you read them.

	(b) Something forking a subprocess which allows you to
	    collect the output of the subprocess in some way
	    (popen would be nice).

	(c) In the worst case, call a program doing what you want,
	    have the program write its output to a file, and read
	    that file. I can promise you that it'll be sloooow but
	    it will work.

Good luck,
-- 
Juergen Wagner		   			gandalf@csli.stanford.edu
						 wagner@arisia.xerox.com