XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-10   
   From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Sun, 7/28/2024 12:42 PM, Newyana2 wrote:   
   > On 7/28/2024 8:41 AM, Big Al wrote:   
   >   
   >>>      Well, except the possibility that someone might   
   >>> write a Linux program where you enter a number and it shows you   
   >>> a bunch of other numbers. I've seen dumber Linux programs.   
   >>> (The eyes that follow the mouse animation. The program for   
   >>> drawing curves for no reason. Console windows... :)   
   >>>   
   >> How about the choo choo train that runs across the terminal screen.   
   >   
   >    Made out of punctuation marks, I suppose? How did I miss   
   > something like that? Sometimes I feel my life has been wasted   
   > on boring trivia when I could have been really living.   
      
   We made extensive usage of "curses" and GOTOXY back when   
   in my computing project. The network status screen I made   
   for keeping an eye on network problems, it was full of GOTOXY   
   because the screen was an array needing "random access" to   
   update status. If you simply repainted the screen with 24*80   
   characters, that would have been slow as blazes, and ugly.   
   (Terminals connected via RS232 or some other slow standard.)   
      
   I'm surprised you did not go through such a phase while programming.   
   Today, you can position widgets in your window at random locations,   
   without any expensive protocol to do it :-)   
      
   GOTOXY is a protocol that a 24x80 terminal understands. It was   
   originally a target for programmers, because that's all we had.   
   We did not have a frame buffer and a graphical subsystem for the   
   computer. The result is, when you wanted to do animations or   
   clever things on an ADM3 say, you would squirt out a GOTOXY(23,79)   
   and a putchar() or equivalent. The terminal took that sequence   
   as an instruction on where to place the cursor for the next character(s).   
      
   Later, when graphics showed up, the Terminal session, there was a $TERM   
   or equivalent (a declaration of the terminal type emulated in the session).   
   If a GOTOXY was emitted, it still worked. There are other effects   
   available today, such as colored text for making a royal mess of   
   a terminal session (selecting a royal blue color perilously close to black).   
      
   So when the notion of a Terminal session came along,   
   some of our toys continued to work.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)