ByteStew

Though not strictly an example of ASCII art, "ByteStew" is the title of
an instance of  a related  class of program-generated animations.   The
original  twelve-year-old  program  written in  GW-BASIC  randomly  and
endlessly writes individual bytes  with  different  colored backgrounds
directly to the DOS screen buffer of a PC fast enough that it gives the
impression  that  the  screen  is  'boiling'  with bytes--   hence, the
allusion to a bubbling 'byte stew.'

For  further  information on  this  early (1987)  example  of  animated
screenery for the PC, link to:

http://samuell.lex.bluegrass.net/Software/ByteStew.shtml

Please be patient.  The server is very *SLOW*.

Regards,


R L Samuell
--
       Web: http://samuell.lex.bluegrass.net/
     Email: http://samuell.lex.bluegrass.net/mailto/typogrammer
   ObASCII: "Cheshire_owl( ^0v0^ )"
 Copyright: (c) 1999 R L Samuell, All Rights Reserved.

On Fri, 22 Oct 1999 17:55:37 GMT, see_URL_in.sig@end.to_mail_to.us (R L
Samuell) wrote:

>Though not strictly an example of ASCII art, "ByteStew" is the title of
>an instance of  a related  class of program-generated animations.   The
>original  twelve-year-old  program  written in  GW-BASIC  randomly  and
>endlessly writes individual bytes  with  different  colored backgrounds
>directly to the DOS screen buffer of a PC fast enough that it gives the
>impression  that  the  screen  is  'boiling'  with bytes--   hence, the
>allusion to a bubbling 'byte stew.'

Here's a tiny Turbo Pascal program which'll do the same thing, and
probably a hell of a lot quicker than GW-BASIC.

program ByteStew;
uses crt;

var
  P : word;

begin
  textmode(c80 + font8x8); {remove this line on 80x25-only screens}
  randomize;
  repeat
    P := random(4000); {change to 4000 on 80x25}
    mem[$B800:P * 2] := random(96) + 32; {only ascii characters :) }
    mem[$B800:(P * 2) + 1] := random(128);
  until keypressed;
end.

I would attach the EXE but I don't think I can in a.a-a. If anyone wants it
I'll upload it someplace.

-- 
Arcain

      |      
______|______
    `\|/'    
     /^\     
   /'   `\   
 /'       `\ 

In article <381...@news.dial.pipex.com> 
  dated Sat, 23 Oct 1999 21:19:25 GMT,
  n...@spam.please.com (Arcain) wrote:
 
> On Fri, 22 Oct 1999 17:55:37 GMT, see_URL_in.sig@end.to_mail_to.us (R L
> Samuell) wrote:
> 
>> Though not strictly an example of ASCII art, "ByteStew" is the title of
>> an instance of  a related  class of program-generated animations.   The
>> original  twelve-year-old  program  written in  GW-BASIC  randomly  and
>> endlessly writes individual bytes  with  different  colored backgrounds
>> directly to the DOS screen buffer of a PC fast enough that it gives the
>> impression  that  the  screen  is  'boiling'  with bytes--   hence, the
>> allusion to a bubbling 'byte stew.'
> 
> Here's a tiny Turbo Pascal program which'll do the same thing, and
> probably a hell of a lot quicker than GW-BASIC.

More speed  may not necessarily be an improvement.  A compiled C version I 
wrote lost the appearance of 'bubbling' to become just an unpleasant blur.

Regards,


R L Samuell
--
       Web: http://samuell.lex.bluegrass.net/
     Email: http://samuell.lex.bluegrass.net/mailto/typogrammer
   ObASCII: "gibbeous_moon( C )"
 Copyright: (c) 1999 R L Samuell, All Rights Reserved.