ANSITerminalPane

ANSITerminalPane Class

The ANSITerminalPane class allows applications to write output to multiple panes or windows on ANSI terminals, consoles and xterms.

Printing output to a pane does not immediately update the display; instead, the pane’s contents are updated, and the pane is displayed with the refresh message.

The ANSITerminalPane class supports the display multiple panes. Each pane is a child of the initial, or parent, pane. Child panes attached to the parent pane (with the Pane : attach method) inherit the input and output streams of the parent pane.

The map configures a child pane for display on top of its parent pane, and the child pane is displayed on top of the parent pane at the next refresh message.

Coordinates and dimensions are numbered from 1,1, which is the upper left-hand corner of a terminal or a content region.

ANSITerminalPanes support bold, blinking, reverse, and underline text attributes for its contents. Some attributes, like blinking and underlined text, or foreground and background colors, are not universally supported.

The program listing shows how to display parent and child ANSITerminalPane objects.

int main () {
  ANSITerminalPane new parentPane;
  ANSITerminalPane new childPane;

  /* 
   *  Use openOn with the terminal device 
   *  to open a remote serial terminal.
   */
/*   parentPane paneStream openOn "/dev/ttya"; */
  parentPane initialize 1, 1, 79, 24;
  parentPane withShadow;
  parentPane withBorder;
  parentPane refresh;

  parentPane gotoXY 29, 10;
  parentPane printOn "Parent Pane";
  parentPane gotoXY 25, 11;
  parentPane printOn "Please press [Enter].";
  parentPane refresh;

  getchar ();  /* Actual apps should use getCh, etc. */

  childPane initialize 10, 10, 40, 10;
  childPane withShadow;
  childPane withBorder;
  childPane boldOnOff;
  parentPane map childPane;
  parentPane attach childPane;
  
  childPane gotoXY 13, 2;
  childPane printOn "Child Pane";
  childPane gotoXY 10, 3;
  childPane printOn "Please press [Enter].";

  parentPane refresh;

  getchar ();

  parentPane unmap childPane;

  parentPane refresh;

  parentPane paneStream closeStream;
  
  childPane delete;
  parentPane delete;
}

Instance Variables

paneStream

An ANSITerminalStream object containing the input and output channels and parameters for the pane and its child panes. When created with new, initializes input and output to the terminal’s standard input and standard output file handles. Communication settings, including TTY settings, can be set with methods from the ANSITerminalStream class. See ANSITerminalStream.

shadow

If TRUE, draw a shadow beneath the pane. The shadow is drawn over the background window and is not part of the pane’s content region.

border

If TRUE, draw a border around the edges of the pane. The border is within the pane’s content region, and it can objscure text beneath it.

parentOrigin

A Point object containing the X and Y coordinates of the parent pane’s origin.

parentClip

A Point object containing the X and Y dimensions of the parent pane’s content area.

Instance Methods

blinkOnOff (void)

Toggle the pane’s blinking graphics attribute; if enabled, display blinking text; if disabled, display normal text. Blinking text is not supported on all terminals.

boldOnOff (void)

Toggle the pane’s bold graphics attribute; if enabled, display bold text; if disabled, display normal text.

childRefresh (void)

Refresh the receiver, a child pane. This method is called by refresh for each of a parent pane’s children.

cursorPos (int x, inty)

Position the software cursor at coordinates x, y within the pane’s content area. This method is a synonym for gotoXY, below.

delete

The class destructor. This method performs the extra cleanup that the ANSITerminalPane class requires.

gotoXY (int x, inty)

Position the software cursor at coordinates x, y within the pane’s content area.

initialize (int x_org, int y_org, int x_size, int y_size)

Initialize the receiver pane’s coordinate instance variables, and screen buffers.

map (ANSITerminalPane __child)

Enable the display of a child pane, and buffer any screen contents. The receiver should be a pane that completely encloses the child pane’s content region and shadow if any. The pane is displayed when the parent pane receives a refresh message.

new (char *__paneName)

Create a new ANSITerminalPane object. If more than one label is given in the argument list, create new ANSITerminalPane objects with those names. This method also creates and initializes the paneStream (class ANSITerminalStream) instance variable. See ANSITerminalStream.

printOn (char *__fmt, ...)

Print the arguments to the pane’s content area at the software cursor position. The output is displayed after the receiver pane receives a refresh message.

putCharXY (intx, inty, charc)

Put character c at coordinates x,y of the pane’s content area. The character is displayed immediately using the pane’s current graphics mode.

refresh (void)

Display the receiver pane content and decorations like borders and shadows on the screen. This method also calls childRefresh for each child pane that is attached (with attach, class Pane) to the receiver pane. See Pane.

resetGraphics (void)

Reset the pane’s graphics attributes to normal text; i.e., bold, underline, reverse, and blink attributes are turned off.

reverseOnOff (void)

Toggle the pane’s reverse graphics attribute; if enabled, display text in inverse video; if disabled, display normal text.

terminalHeight

Returns an Integer with the terminal’s height in character rows.

Note: If an operating system has a terminal interface that Ctalk doesn’t know about, then the method returns 0.

terminalWidth

Returns an Integer with the terminal’s width in character columns.

See the note about terminal compatibility in the terminalHeight entry, above.

underlineOnOff (void)

Toggle the pane’s underline graphics attribute; if enabled, display text underlined; if disabled, display normal text. Underlined text is not supported on all terminals.

unmap (ANSITerminalPane __child)

Hide a child pane, and restore any screen contents that were obscured when the child pane was displayed. The child pane is withdrawn when the parent pane receives the next refresh message.

withBorder (void)

Enable the display of a border around the edges of the pane’s content area, using ANSI line drawing characters. The border is within the pane’s content area and can obscure text at the edges of the pane.

withShadow (void)

Enable the display of a shadow underneath the pane. The shadow is outside of the pane’s content area, and should be within the clipping area of the parent pane.