Message-Id: <199712261742.TAA12945@ankara.duzen.com.tr> Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "S. M. Halloran" Organization: User RFC 822- and 1123-Compliant To: Noam Rotem , djgpp AT delorie DOT com Date: Fri, 26 Dec 1997 16:14:32 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: Escape Sequences / Reading from Console In-reply-to: Precedence: bulk I just joined the list today myself, but a "rookie" like me can handle these questions. ;-) The topics are probably better addressed in other newsgroups however. > 1. Where can I find a list of escape sequences for unix > (like: "^[J2" - clear the screen)? Those ANSI escape sequences for cursor control of the screen can be found in various places on various systems. If going through the Web search engines doesn't turn up anything then (1) On most, if not all, Unix systems, terminal capabilities are found in a file in the /etc directory. This file is called "termcap". I suggest you do "man termcap" at the shell prompt to understand the codes for the booleans, number values, and string values both for input and output of a terminal. Also try "man terminfo": there is an attempt to make this a more preferred system for defining terminal capabilities. A termcap-style source file (a terminfo file--you can generally convert from termcap to terminfo with a utility called "captoinfo"). (2) On DOS, Microsoft has something you can read by typing "help ansi.sys" at the DOS prompt (assuming you are using MS-DOS 5.0 or later version). Those will describe a minor set of ANSI escape codes. > 2. Is there any portable function or asm code for reading one > single character from the console? (with DOS, I can use BIOS > interrupt 16h, but with unix I can't, as far as I understand > it). I don't believe you can use the word "portable" and "asm" in the same sentence (or breath). I can say that with Unix, you need to play around with the termios structures to get single character input and the like. These are well-described in FAQs in the Unix groups (obtainable through the web or ftp too). I am attempting to get my own curses/menus/forms/term code taken from a SysVR4 system and set up a wrapper to implement those things that can be done in MS-DOS and ignore those things that cannot. Note that use of interrupts is a property of a processor and not an operating system. Someone running a Unix system on a Motorola 68xxx would take offense at your notion that all they have to do is call interrupt 0x16 :) Mitch Halloran Research (Bio)chemist Duzen Laboratories Group Ankara TURKEY mitch AT duzen DOT com DOT tr other job title: Sequoia's (dob 12-20-95) daddy