Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 08:49:00 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: richard DOT griffiths AT zetnet DOT co DOT uk
Cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: HCI
In-Reply-To: <4pmi5e$932@roch.zetnet.co.uk>
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960613084324.8264G-100000@is>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII


On 12 Jun 1996 richard DOT griffiths AT zetnet DOT co DOT uk wrote:

> I wish to have a simple no cluttered text mode interface, similar to that 
> of the RAR archiver.
> 
> However, I am at a loss as to how to do this.

Take a good look on the various screen I/O functions documented in the
library reference, like cputs, cprintf, ScreenUpdate, ScreenRetrieve, etc.

> I first thought that I could draw the screen in thedraw, save it as ANSI, 
> and then just flip it to the screen.  I could then have a loop which would 
> update file information each time a key is pressed.  Would this work?  I 
> suspect it may be very jerky.  And what if I wish to change the colour?

Check out the functions named ScreenUpdate, ScreenRetrieve, 
ScreenUpdateLine, textbackground, textcolor.

> Next I thought that I could use thedraw again, but this time save the file 
> as ASCII and just print it to the screen using printf.  Would this work?, 
> and how could can I change the text colour?

This will be way too slow.  Why go to a file when in DJGPP you have so 
much memory?  Just save the screen contents in RAM.  And don't use printf 
when you know you are writing to the screen, use the above screen I/O 
functions.  They are much faster and don't buffer their output, so you 
will always see the output immediately.
 
> Also, how would I go about saving and restoring the text mode screen?

With ScreenRetrieve and ScreenUpdate.