Talk:ANSI escape code
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How can a document with ANSI escapes be converted into a more portable form? I would like to send such a document, but the receiver has no ANSI terminal. -- Thomas Hafner
I'm sure there are plenty tools on the web; I know a plug-in for FAR (File and Archive Manager); it can view the .ANS files and translate them to HTML format.
Also, there are also codes for terminal keys (F1-F12, PageUp/Down etc). Does anyone have a list of those codes?
-- Vladimir Panteleev
This is kind of DOS biased; also, a reference to ansi.sys documentation (for the dos-specific stuff) would be good, if any exists --Random832(tc) 08:29, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
- Agreed. The article lacks a bigger picture - text terminals are only briefly mentioned and even the VT100 is totally omitted although it has had a lot of influence on the implementations of ANSI X3.64. A little bit of history wouldn't hurt, especially since the de-facto combination of standards has evolved over time. --Viznut 12:58, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
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[edit] ISO 6429
The C0 and C1 control codes article says C1 control codes are defined in ISO 6429. ISO 6429 redirect to this article, ANSI escape code. But in this article, C1 control codes are not discussed. Does C1 have actually anyhting to do with ANSI escape codes? --Abdull 08:03, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
- Answer to myself. According to the official ECMA-048 5th edition, ECMA-048 4th edition was adopted as ISO 6429 2nd edition. ECMA-048 5th edition was adopted as ISO/IEC 6429 3rd edition. ECMA-048 5th edition defines both the so called ANSI escape codes, as well as the C0 set (PDF page 22) and the C1 set (PDF pages 22, 23). By the way CSI can either be the true CSI character from the C1 set, or be a 7-bit safe sequence of ESC character plus [ (bracket, ASCII 0x5B). --Abdull 10:09, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Display codes
This article only covers display codes. ANSI X3.64 covered any output device, but was fairly open about implementation. Many printer companies used variations of ANSI over the years— Digital, Texas Instruments, Printronix, Tally, GENICOM and more. --— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 21:44, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
- Perhaps, with appropriate sources. The only printer controls I recall well are the PCL ones, which are not ANSI Tedickey (talk) 22:21, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] The ANSI brown/orange/yellow color and IBM CGA hardware
As for the footnote about the color of brown, it would be worth providing a link to the Color Graphics Adapter article.
In that article, it mentions that the color of brown was a special case in hardware. IBM added circuitry to early CGA monitors to force the color to be orange/brown/rust, instead of an unpleasing dark yellow. The CGA article explains more about this.
Not all early PC clones did the same CGA monitor hack that IBM did. Therefore, there is evidently a lot of variation in the industry, about what that color should be.
I edited the article to include this link, unless there's a good reason to not do so. I could not find solid evidence that ANSI color codes were tied to the IBM CGA hardware design, but they sure seem similar. It's obvious that the 16 available ANSI colors have a 1:1 mapping to available IBM CGA colors, but they appear in a slightly different order. If proof can be found that ANSI colors were based on CGA colors, or vice versa, please add this to the article.
--Kreline (talk) 21:37, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
- Thank you for the reference. I knew dim yellow was really orange/brn, but didn't know why and from where before. Davygrvy (talk) 08:37, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
[edit] Category: User Interface Techniques
This article should not be inside that category. Please check the main article on User interface technique for a clarification. Dragice (talk) 19:09, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
- Of course I disagree. You're asserting that ANSI escape codes are not (for example), used to render visual effects for user interfaces. Tedickey (talk) 19:54, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
I'm sorry, but this still does not fit the definition of user interface technique. ANSI escape codes are not user interface techniques at least for two reasons: 1) they only involve output 2) they are at the system level -- the user does not see them. Please take some time to read the article. Dragice (talk) 23:10, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
- I read the article (which is both vague and oriented toward one viewpoint). Compare against User interface. I also note the inconsistency between your remarks and the inclusion of Modifier key, Scrolling, Pie menu. Tedickey (talk) 23:27, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
I took a closer look at the article and I admit that directly typing ANSI escape codes in a terminal in order to clear the screen or to move the cursor can be considered as an interaction technique. But is this really the way people use ANSI escape codes? Or is it more a file format for attributed text? It's not clear from the article. This article is extremely technical and I'm afraid most of its current content is irrelevant to human-computer interaction. If you are willing to do something about it, then I'd be happy to see ANSI escape codes listed as a user interface technique. However, please note that in case ANSI escape codes are not intended to be used in interactive mode, it would not make sense to list them in that category. No more than HTML and other languages. Dragice (talk) 20:35, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
- Generally, most people interested in the ANSI codes are using them as literal strings in their (shell) command prompt (or similar uses). That's in spite of higher-level interfaces, e.g., tput for UNIX systems. There's technical information here because that's what the topic covers. Given the current category composition, it's more interactive than syntax highlighting Tedickey (talk) 20:47, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
[edit] "ANSI escape code" vs "ANSI escape sequence"
Comments regarding "correctness" are misplaced - "code" is applicable, but more generic. Tedickey (talk) 00:49, 2 January 2009 (UTC)
