Subj : Re: Need help with LordMenu utility
To   : Donald Tidmore
From : Scott Adams
Date : Tue Jan 16 2007 11:59 pm

 -=> Quoting Donald Tidmore to Scott Adams <=-

 > Did you check out SWAG the ansi section?  If I recall it has
 > a whole file on ansi codes and pretty easy to figure out.
 > If Bjorn can't help you I'll see what i can.  But the file
 > and code is big.  If you have specific questions or something
 > for me to look for please let me know.  Otherwise i'd just
 > be reading line by line and not sure what to look for
 > exactly.  :)
 > Is it just the Ansi stuff?

 DT> I just don't understand ANSI file editing very well, so I've not tried
 DT> to figure out solutions to the issue.  I tried for a full month to  do
 DT> this and that with the original Lordmenu code I got from Robert Fogt,
 DT> but nothing would work.  As far as I know, the data file it creates in
 DT> RIP mode works fine.  And I have no idea if it would make any
 DT> difference if it wrote the file as 3rdalt.ans or not.

     You checked out SWAG like I suggested?  Theres also old websites
     out there teaching Ansi codes and such.  Many of the old
     Ansi Artist groups did tutorials as well. 

     I must admit I only studied them slightly enough to get
     what I needed at the time.  Like a Reboot util for the
     BBS or other Utils.  I've drawn wimpy ansis but never
     studied in depth.

 DT> I tried renaming Lordmenu's 3rdalt.txt file to 3rd_alt.ans, and
 DT> viewing it in Pablo Draw.  I have around 27 igms installed in my Lord
 DT> game - most of them are either mine or ones that i have loved using
 DT> for years.  Anyway, all that displays in PABLO is the colored letters
 DT> for L.O.R.D., the phrase/line "Choose your path wisely", and one
 DT> single line of IGM entries. Which is for the last two igms in the
 DT> file.  The other 26 igm entries don't get shown on the screen.  The
 DT> same thing happens when LORD itself tries to display that 3rdalt.txt
 DT> file.

     Sounds like it is reading the first 26 but since the last 2 entries
     are the typical string length (256) they only display the
     last two lines. This might be a good clue.  Sounds like
     the program is not doing line feeds or separators and so
     reading it one screen.  Hrm...Unfournately I'm swamped this
     week but maybe before I close the BBS down on 2/1 I can
     look at the loop code for this you sent.  Might have more
     time next week.  

 DT> Is it possible in Borland Pascal to write the ansi symbols to a
 DT> buffer, that only holds 255 characters?  Write the buffer's content to
 DT> a file, and clear the buffer.  Then repeat the process until every
 DT> line of the 3rdparty.dat that is processed by LORDMENU has been
 DT> translated into ANSI characters, and written to a file?  That's the
 DT> only thing I think would work, but I don't know how to put it into
 DT> pascal code statements to see if that concept would work.  Donald 

     Well if you do a Loop to read a line of string or just a set number
     say 256.  I'm looking at my 3rd data file and I see one line
     per entry.  So if some reason they are 1000 characters long
     then it sounds like its reading 5 lines from that one line.  Sounds
     like whatever program is doing it isn't putting a End of Line
     character in place.

     I'll try to get back to this when I get time....





.... "The year is 2258.  The name of the place is Babylon 5."
--- Fringe BBS
 * Origin: EWOG II - The Fringe - 904-733-1721 (1:112/91)

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