ANSI ESCAPE SEQUENCE EMULATOR

This is an ANSI Escape Sequence Emulator library written entirely in QB64-PE.

FEATURES

• No dependency on third party libraries
• Works on Windows, Linux & macOS
• Works in 32bpp graphics mode emulating text mode colors and true color extensions
• Supports most common ANSI escape sequences and even some obscure ones
  • All relevant ANSI Escape Sequences
  • All relevant ANSI.SYS Escape Sequences
  • PabloDraw 24bpp color escape sequence
• Supports embedded ANSI music - WIP
• Supports ANSImation content
• Support querying width and height of the content in characters - WIP
• Easy plug-&-play API - OK
• Loads and renders ANS, ASC, DIZ, NFO and TXT files
• Includes a demo viewer to show how to use the library

USAGE

• Clone the repository to a directory of your choice
• Open Terminal and change to the directory using an appropriate OS command
• Run git submodule update --init --recursive to initialize, fetch and checkout git submodules
• Open ANSIPrint64.bas in the QB64-PE IDE and press F5 to compile and run
• To use the library in your project add the Toolbox64 repositiory as a Git submodule

API

' Easy top-level API (call and forget style)
SUB ANSI_Print (sANSI AS STRING)

' Core library functions (if more control is required)
SUB ANSI_InitializeEmulator
SUB ANSI_ResetEmulator
SUB ANSI_SetEmulationSpeed (nCPS AS LONG)
FUNCTION ANSI_PrintCharacter%% (ch AS _UNSIGNED _BYTE)
FUNCTION ANSI_PrintString%% (s AS STRING)

' Library support functions
SUB ANSI_SetTextCanvasColor (c AS _UNSIGNED LONG, isBackground AS LONG, isLegacy AS LONG)
FUNCTION ANSI_GetTextCanvasWidth&
FUNCTION ANSI_GetTextCanvasHeight&
SUB ANSI_ClearTextCanvasArea (l AS LONG, t AS LONG, r AS LONG, b AS LONG)

FAQ

What can I do with this?

• Anything you want! Use it in games, demos or for writing pretty text mode user interfaces and output.

Can you implment feature x / y?

• With the limited time I have between my day job, home and family, there is only so much I can do. I do maintain a list of TODO (see below). However, those do not have any set deadlines. If you need something implemented, submit a GitHub issue about it or do it yourself and submit a PR.

I found a bug. How can I help?

• Let me know using GitHub issues or fix it yourself and submit a PR!

Can this be used in a game / demo?

• Absolutely. The demo code included in a good example.

NOTES

• This requires the latest version of QB64-PE
• The renderer is designed for QB64's 32BPP graphics Window. Legacy SCREENs will not work
• This is WIP. So, expect things to change and break. There are some bugs and quirks that needs to be worked out
• When you clone a repository that contains submodules, the submodules are not automatically cloned by default
• You will need to use the git submodule update --init --recursive to initialize, fetch and checkout git submodules

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• ANSI Escape Sequences by Christian Petersen
• ANSI escape code from Wikipedia
• ANSI.SYS from Wikipedia
• Console Virtual Terminal Sequences by Microsoft
• ANSI.SYS Documentation by Microsoft
• ANSI.SYS Documentation and Reference by Carsten Cumbrowski
• ANSIPLUS Escape Sequences by Kristofer Sweger
• NANSI.SYS Documentation by Daniel Kegel
• NNANSI.COM Documentation by Tom Almy
• ANSI Color Codes by Jimmy Tang
• SAUCE – Standard Architecture for Universal Comment Extensions by Olivier "Tasmaniac" Reubens / ACiD
• ANSI Music by unknown
• Various resources and information from https://16colo.rs/, http://www.roysac.com/ and https://int10h.org/

ASSETS

Icon by DesignContest

CREDITS

Rick Christy (grymmjack) for pointing out issues and helping me with invaluable resources. This project includes some of his artwork for testing. Thanks Rick!