[net.micro.pc] screen colors in dos

kjg@harpo.UUCP (06/05/85)

Well, folks, I've tied (with limited success) to change screen colors
using prompt.  The biggest problem is this 'out of environment space'
business.  What does it mean and how can I avoid the error?

Kevin J Glass
harpo!kjg

cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) (06/10/85)

> Well, folks, I've tied (with limited success) to change screen colors
> using prompt.  The biggest problem is this 'out of environment space'
> business.  What does it mean and how can I avoid the error?
> 
> Kevin J Glass
> harpo!kjg

PROMPT works through the environment variable mechanism of PC-DOS.  
Unfortunately, PC-DOS has a *very* small amount of space for environment
variables (128? 256? bytes), and if you have a number of environment
variables set for other things, there may not be room for you to set
the prompt as well.  Better just to create a file with the ANSI color
setting modes in it.  If need be, you can build a BASIC program that
stores the ANSI sequences into a file.  (Note: BASIC can't directly
set screen color with the ANSI sequences --- it's output (annoyingly
enough) doesn't go through the ANSI driver.

john@moncol.UUCP (John Ruschmeyer) (06/13/85)

>From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
>Organization: Kontron Electronics, Irvine, CA
>Message-ID: <215@kontron.UUCP>
>
>		......Better just to create a file with the ANSI color
>setting modes in it.  If need be, you can build a BASIC program that
>stores the ANSI sequences into a file.  (Note: BASIC can't directly
>set screen color with the ANSI sequences --- it's output (annoyingly
>enough) doesn't go through the ANSI driver.

In my limited experience, I have found that this is not totally true.
If you open the file "con" in BASIC and print your escape sequences to it,
they do go through the ANSI driver. (NOTE: For some reason, some of the
sequences still don't have the desired effect in BASIC, but the screen
should be set correctly on return to DOS.)

If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me.


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