[newbie question] How does editorRefreshScreen work?

[bjorxi]

Hi. Awesome project!
I always wanted to learn, how does textminal/text magic work, and this code is fantastic. But I can't understand the editorRefreshScreen function. How doest it render text and doesn't just append it to terminal? What is the idea behind it?

Can someone give me a hint?

[skx]

As you say the routine builds up a big long string, then prints it to the console.

The magic comes from the escape codes, which are interpreted by your terminal.

As a simple example run these two commands:

 $ echo -e "\e[31mHello \e[32mWorld\e[0m"
 $ echo -e "\e[1;31;42m Yes it is awful \e[0mback to normal"

For the rest you'll need to consult this list - but if you work through what kilo is doing it's pretty good:

• resets the cursor to 0,0
• draws each line.
  • Setting colour where appropriate.
• draws the cursor.

[bjorxi]

Thank you! Now it makes sense.

[skx]

Glad I could be useful!

Asking questions is good, but probably best to close this now you're clearer :)