Re: Cursor positioning with console application under Windows NT

Re: Cursor positioning with console application under Windows NT

[Tarjei T. Jensen]

David Christensen wrote:
> 
> Does anyone have any suggestions or pointers for positioning the cursor in
> a console application under Windows NT?  Using ANSI escape sequences is not
> supported under NT and I haven't found any other mehtods available with
> standard ADA.  (If it matters, I can use either AONIX ObjectAda or the GNAT
> complier.)


To get support for ANSI escape sequences you load ansi.sys or equivalent
in the config.nt file. I believe that it is located in the system32
directory. At least that is what I did under NT 3.51.

I think the ansi.sys statements is present, but commented out in the
config.nt files that comes right out of the box.


Greetings,

-- 
// Tarjei T. Jensen 
//    tarjei@online.no || voice +47 51 62 85 58
//   Support you local rescue centre: GET LOST!

Re: Cursor positioning with console application under Windows NT

[Steve Doiel]

In article <347C7BD0.730C@online.no>, tarjei@online.no says...
>
>David Christensen wrote:
>> 
>> Does anyone have any suggestions or pointers for positioning the cursor 
in
>> a console application under Windows NT?  Using ANSI escape sequences is 
not
>> supported under NT and I haven't found any other mehtods available with
>> standard ADA.  (If it matters, I can use either AONIX ObjectAda or the 
GNAT
>> complier.)
>
>
>To get support for ANSI escape sequences you load ansi.sys or equivalent
>in the config.nt file. I believe that it is located in the system32
>directory. At least that is what I did under NT 3.51.
>
>I think the ansi.sys statements is present, but commented out in the
>config.nt files that comes right out of the box.
>
After several attempts, I gave up on trying to get the ANSI.SYS file to 
work with GNAT or ObjectAda applications.  I believe that ANSI.SYS does 
not work with Win32 App's.

Here's my cursor position procedure that works under both ObjectAda and 
GNAT:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
  PACKAGE WinBase RENAMES Win32.Winbase;
  PACKAGE WinCon RENAMES Win32.WinCon;

PROCEDURE CursorPosn( row, col : Natural ) IS

  result : Win32.BOOL;
  toRow : Natural := Natural'MAX( row, 1 );
  toCol : Natural := Natural'MAX( col, 1 );
  
BEGIN
  result := WinCon.SetConsoleCursorPosition(
                  WinBase.GetStdHandle( WinBase.STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE ),
                  WinCon.COORD'( X => Win32.Short( toCol - 1 ),
                                 y => Win32.Short( toRow - 1 ) ) );
END CursorPosnTIF;

-------------------------------------------------------------------
You of course need to use the Win32ada bindings fo this.

I hope this helps,
BTW: there are a number of other console functions for doing similar
things.

Re: Cursor positioning with console application under Windows NT

[Chad R. Meiners]

I dug through the Win32 SDK and discovered that ansi escape are not checked for  
in the API used to print to the console.  This explains why programs compiled 
with a dos compiler will still work with a ansi.sys file or an equivelant TSR.  
The Gnat 3.10p NT compiler to my understanding uses the NT API's so ansi will 
not work with it anyway.  Jerry van Dijk's cursor package is a better way to 
position the cursor anyway.

This poses the question, "Has anyone written a nice package to use all the 
features of the console API's?"

Chad R. Meiners

Re: Cursor positioning with console application under Window

[Jerry van Dijk]

In article <3486f01b.0@silver.truman.edu> v025@academic.truman.edu writes:

>This poses the question, "Has anyone written a nice package to use all the
>features of the console API's?"

If you really want to use _ALL_ features of the console API's, use the Win32
binding.

If, on the other hand, you just need something akin to the DOS console I/O
stuff, yep, it's there. Just not published yet. This API is of the usual MS
quality...

--

-- Jerry van Dijk | Leiden, Holland
-- Consultant     | Team Ada
-- Ordina Finance | jdijk@acm.org

Re: Cursor positioning with console application under Windows NT

[Jerry van Dijk]

>Does anyone have any suggestions or pointers for positioning the cursor in
>a console application under Windows NT?  Using ANSI escape sequences is not
>supported under NT and I haven't found any other mehtods available with
>standard ADA.  (If it matters, I can use either AONIX ObjectAda or the GNAT
>complier.)

As this seems to become a popular question, I've put a small package for
cursor positioning on NT under the 'misc' section of my homepage at

   http://stad.dsl.nl/~jvandyk

This package does not require an Win32 binding and will work with either
GNAT or OA.

--

-- Jerry van Dijk | Leiden, Holland
-- Consultant     | Team Ada
-- Ordina Finance | jdijk@acm.org

Re: Cursor positioning with console application under Windows NT

[Jon Jensen]

Modify your config.nt file to include the following:

device=c:\winnt40\system32\ansi.sys

Assuming of course you installed Windows NT in the C:\winnt40.

Caution - make sure you are using the ansi.sys provided with Windows NT and
not the one from MSDOS or Windows/Windows 95.  Windows NT does NOT have a
DOS subsystem the way Windows 95 does and attempting to use DOS device
drivers (like ANSI.SYS from those operating systems) will certainly cause
you problems.

Also any systems which will run your program will also have to have this
modification made. 

David Christensen <david_christensen@phoenix.com> wrote in article
<01bcfa8c$e3d34310$123d7a86@dchristensen>...
> Does anyone have any suggestions or pointers for positioning the cursor
in
> a console application under Windows NT?  Using ANSI escape sequences is
not
> supported under NT and I haven't found any other mehtods available with
> standard ADA.  (If it matters, I can use either AONIX ObjectAda or the
GNAT
> complier.)  
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> David Christensen
>