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From: tmoran@bix.com
Subject: Re: more specific, was:change screen colour??
Date: 2000/08/26
Message-ID: <6yUp5.135921$i5.1994143@news1.frmt1.sfba.home.com>#1/1
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Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 2000-08-26T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

>Im writing a program using ada95 compiler thats going to run in a dos
>window, and i want to change the dos window colour from black to
>blue..  i am using windows 95 and have 32bit video card..  i think

1. Look up ANSI.SYS and see if that will let you send a control
sequence to change the background color.

2. See if there's something in MS's "Accessibility Options" (for
those with poor vision, say) that will do it.

3. See if there is an int21 or a BIOS int10 call and your program can
use it (I don't recall one, but it's been a while).

4. Have your program go and change the color attribute byte on the
(emulated) DOS screen.  Using an old Ada83 compiler and running in
a DOS window under Win95, this program gives the leftmost 20 columns
a blue background.  Every time you scroll a line, though, you need to
repaint black to blue on the new area.

with text_io;
with system;
procedure blue is
-- test blue-ing background on DOS window

  type col_types is new integer;
  type row_types is new integer;

  subtype cols is col_types range 1 .. 80;
  subtype rows is row_types range 1 .. 24;

  type ibm_chars is record
    char:character;
    attribute:system.byte;
  end record;

  type lines is array(cols) of ibm_chars;

  type screens is array(rows) of lines;

  screen:screens;
  for screen use at (16#B800#,0);
begin
  text_io.put_line("line one");
  text_io.put_line("line two");
  text_io.put_line("line three");
  for r in screen'range loop
    for c in cols range 1 .. 20 loop
      screen(r)(c).attribute:=16#17#;
    end loop;
  end loop;
  text_io.put_line("line four");
  text_io.put_line("line five");
  text_io.put_line("line six");
  delay 10.0;
end blue;

The line
  for screen use at (16#B800#,0);
is going to take some work, however, since you'll probably have to ask
Windows for an address of the (simulated) DOS text RAM, and tell your
Ada 95 compiler to use that address.

Sorry that such a straightforward request results in such a long
answer.  Perhaps others can suggest other approaches.