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From: Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: scanf & 320*200
Date: 14 Jan 2002 13:23:09 GMT
Organization: Aachen University of Technology (RWTH)
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charlie <charlieo AT ukonline DOT co DOT uk> wrote:

> i know i'm missing important info but not sure what -
> if it's possible to printf, or sprintf, with textout or textout_centre etc
> in (320 * 200), why not scanf, possibly using FILE to set the stream
> pointer?

Because scanf reads the *keyboard*, not the screen.  The screen isn't
modelled as a readable file, so you can't read it like one.

Only text screens can be read out (using ScreenGetChar() from the
<pc.h> package) directly. In graphics mode, there is no explicit
representation of a single displayed character that you could read
out: it's just an arbitrary collection of pixels.

So, in a nutshell: graphical display mode means you can only read
pixels, not characters from video memory.  

Characters can be converted into graphical pixels for output, but the
reverse operation is beyond the scope of both the BIOS and the vast
majority of graphics libraries: only OCR software for scanners usually
does that.
-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.