FWQ (frequently wondered question)

In a previous article, I said:

>
>
>I'm kind of new to this group, and I was wondering where
>I can find animated ascii art.  It sounds cool but I've
>never seen any. :-)
>

If it makes a difference, I'm on SunOS unix/vt100.

Thanks again.

Sharon

I was wondering, if someone can possibly tell me how the programs (vt) are made? Like the one you uudecode,
uncompress and cat/type. I've had the chance to see a few of them and would like to do something similar
myself. 

Also, is there any way to decompile these files to see what they look like. Are they written in C? Anyone who
knows about anything about these vt files. Please, email me at "ck...@dcs.ed.ac.uk".

Thanks,
CHI.

In article <CMp...@dcs.ed.ac.uk> Chi Tsang, ck...@dcs.ed.ac.uk writes:
> Also, is there any way to decompile these files to see what they look 
> like. Are they written in C? 

A C program that does neat stuff when typed, that would be interesting.  
Actually, vt animations are just text files.  The effects are created 
using ASCII character 027d (1Bh, 33o), the escape character.  Following 
my sig is a list of vt100 control codes that I pulled off of a.a-a a 
while ago (my additions are marked with `]').  To see the codes, rather 
than the effects of the codes, just look at the file in a text editor 
(Emacs in Unix is good, DOS EDIT in DOS is good).  Or, in Unix, use the 
command `cat -v filename.vt'.  

There's allegedly a program called The Draw (I'm not sure what platform 
it's for) that will help you animate, but it's as elusive to a.a-a[.a] 
readers as rec.humor's GGBJ.

(Vt animation is one kind of ASCII animation--the other would be a  
program that animates when run (not typed).)

I hope this helps all curious parties--now all you have to do is create 
an animation (hey, no problem :-) and post it.
--
Matt Messina
mes...@umich.edu

--

Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art
From: sst...@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Susan Loggiodice)
Subject: Re: How To Animate .plan [Novices Level]

>Question: How do I change the text on the screen to be reversed,
>          flashing, etc?

    This is done with escape sequences!  An escape sequence is a
sequence of characters, beginning with chr(27), the escape character,
which is interpreted by the terminal to manipulate the output in
various ways.

    How does one create an escape sequence?
] In Gnu Emacs: C-Q <esc>, where <esc> is the escape key
] In vi:        ^V ^[
] In DOS EDIT:  ^P <esc>
] On the Macintosh?  Any Mac users know how?

    Some of the basic escape sequences on the vt's and the ibm vt
emulator (kermit) are:

 DESCRIPTION                   ESCAPE SEQUENCE

 normal text (resets text)      <esc>[0m
 Highlighted text               <esc>[1m
 Underlined text                <esc>[4m
 Flashing text                  <esc>[5m
 Reversed text                  <esc>[7m
 double size text               <esc>#3  both must be written
                                <esc>#4  both must be written
 double width text              <esc>#6

 Fill screen with E's           <esc>#8
 Screen Blank                   <esc>[2J
 erases from cursor to
   end of line                  <esc>[K
 sets for 80 column mode        <esc>[?3h
 sets for 132 column mode       <esc>[?3L
 turns smooth scroll on         <esc>[?4h
 turns smooth scroll off        <esc>[?4l
 turns reverse video on         <esc>[?5h
 turns reverse video off        <esc>[?5l
 cursor home                    <esc>[?6h

 move cursor up x lines         <esc>[xA         x defaults to 1
 move cursor down x lines       <esc>[xB         x defaults to 1
 move cursor right y spaces     <esc>[yC         y defaults to 1
 move cursor left y spaces      <esc>[yD         y defaults to 1
 cursor position                <esc>[y;xf       1<=y<=24   1<=x<=80
 cursor position                <esc>[y;xH       1<=y<=24   1<=x<=80

 sets scrolling between
   A and B                      <esc>[A;Br
 toggle to graphics mode        <esc>(0
 toggle from graphics mode      <esc>(B

Matt Messina (mes...@umich.edu) wrote:

: There's allegedly a program called The Draw (I'm not sure what platform 
: it's for) that will help you animate, but it's as elusive to a.a-a[.a] 
: readers as rec.humor's GGBJ.

        TheDraw is available at oak.oakland.edu in 
		/pub/msdos/screen/tdraw463.zip (as of about 40 seconds ago)
	It's a DOS program for ANSI drawing/animation.  You probably
	could use a subset of its functions for VT animation.

	I'm kind of surprised that no one's written a full-blown macro
	package for emacs though.


: (Vt animation is one kind of ASCII animation--the other would be a  
: program that animates when run (not typed).)

 	I'm not sure I grok this.  A c program would have to be
	compiled for each platform.  Even a shar would be less than
	universal.  (However, if I was to distribute a c program to
	a newsgroup like this I support a shar would be the way to go.

   

Um, I've been playing around for a bit with ascii
images but I just discovered this animation side
of it all, how do you make them? Where can I get
some info?
-Geech

In article <896...@mnementh.southern.co.nz>, Colin Douthwaite
<cfb...@southern.co.nz> wrote:
> 
> Geech <swi...@slkc.uswest.net> wrote:
> >Um, I've been playing around for a bit with ascii
> >images but I just discovered this animation side
> >of it all, how do you make them? Where can I get
> >some info?
> >-Geech
> 
> See my tip at the very end of the following document...you have to
> study other people's animations and learn the hard way by trial and
> error. Good luck.
> 
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> 
>     Tips on viewing .VT animations with MSDOS    Revised: MAY 98
> 
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> 
> Requests often appear for help on viewing .VT animation
> files. I therefore decided to write the following notes which refer
> to viewing under MSDOS. I do not think the steps will be much
> different on other Operating Systems.
> 
[BIG snip]
> 1) Download the file from the newsgroup using normal methods.
>    I do not try to run the animation on-line.
> 
> 2) Rename the .VT file  FILENAME.UUE ( not filename.vt which would give
>    trouble later ).                    ^^^
> 
> 3) Use a UUDECODE program to decode FILENAME.UUE:
> 
>             C> UUDECODE FILENAME.UUE
> 
>   This automatically produces a new file, FILENAME.VT, which appears
>   in your directory.
[BIG snip]
> 
> PS   Don't ask me how to make vt animations - I don't know !
> 
>      Tip: Get a simple animation and study it using your
>      wordprocessor and try to figure out how the author has done it.
>      Then try your hand at a very simple animation of your own.
>      Post the results here.
> 
> Bye,

Colin, I suspect that Geech may not want to do all of these things to
the computer in order to view an antiquated version of ASCII-animation.
I know I'm too lazy to follow your complicated and LONG instructions.

Geech, if you would like to learn more about Javascript ASCII-animations
(which involve using Netscape Navigator 3.01, Opera 3.2b2 or Microsoft
Explorer 4.0 that have the Javascript enabled. No other changes need to
be made to the configuration of the computer), go to

http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~freise/ascii/anim/

I have also made a template which can be found at:

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/animlesson.htm#top

I think that Kangaroo may have made a program if you find Andreas' or my
lessons too complicated.

Hope that helps and that you enjoy viewing the animations.


NOTE: If you are e-mailing me and hit the reply button, add an "e"
to "freent"; its absense is to stop the torment of automatic mailers.
--
llizard aka ejm
      [     + +    +
cq547@|reene|.|oron|o.on.ca                                     ,^
ASCII-art, ASCII and gif animations             ===%^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/           "    "

Geech <swi...@slkc.uswest.net> wrote:

>Um, I've been playing around for a bit with ascii
>images but I just discovered this animation side
>of it all, how do you make them? Where can I get
>some info?


=========================================================================

                           ANSI ESCAPE SEQUENCES
                       ( For use in Ascii animations )

=========================================================================

Wherever you see '#', that should be replaced by the appropriate number.

        ESC code sequence                  Function
       -------------------         ---------------------------
Cursor Controls:
         ESC[#;#H or ESC[#;#f      Moves cusor to line #, column #
         ESC[#A                    Moves cursor up # lines
         ESC[#B                    Moves cursor down # lines
         ESC[#C                    Moves cursor forward # spaces
         ESC[#D                    Moves cursor back # spaces
         ESC[#;#R                  Reports current cursor line & column
         ESC[s                     Saves cursor position for recall later
         ESC[u                     Return to saved cursor position

Erase Functions:
         ESC[2J                    Clear screen and home cursor
         ESC[K                     Clear to end of line

Set Graphics Rendition:
         ESC[#;#;....;#m           Set display attributes where # is
                                       0 for normal display
                                       1 for bold on
                                       4 underline (mono only)
                                       5 blink on
                                       7 reverse video on
                                       8 nondisplayed (invisible)
                                       30 black foreground
                                       31 red foreground
                                       32 green foreground
                                       33 yellow foreground
                                       34 blue foreground
                                       35 magenta foreground
                                       36 cyan foreground
                                       37 white foreground
                                       40 black background
                                       41 red background
                                       42 green background
                                       43 yellow background
                                       44 blue background
                                       45 magenta background
                                       46 cyan background
                                       47 white background

         ESC[=#;7h or      Put screen in indicated mode where # is
         ESC[=h or                  0 for 40 x 25 black & white
         ESC[=0h or                 1 for 40 x 25 color
         ESC[?7h                    2 for 80 x 25 b&w
                                    3 for 80 x 25 color
                                    4 for 320 x 200 color graphics
                                    5 for 320 x 200 b & w graphics
                                    6 for 640 x 200 b & w graphics
                                    7 to wrap at end of line

         ESC[=#;7l or ESC[=l or   Resets mode # set with above command
         ESC[=0l or ESC[?7l


Keyboard Reassignments:

         ESC[#;#;...p           Keyboard reassignment. The first ASCII
         or ESC["string"p       code defines which code is to be
         or ESC[#;"string";#;   changed. The remaining codes define
            #;"string";#p       what it is to be changed to.

   E.g. Reassign the Q and q keys to the A and a keys (and vice versa).

         ESC [65;81p                    A becomes Q
         ESC [97;113p                   a becomes q
         ESC [81;65p                    Q becomes A
         ESC [113;97p                   q becomes a

         E.g. Reassign the F10 key to a DIR command.

         ESC [0;68;"dir";13p       The 0;68 is the extended ASCII code
                                   for the F10 key and 13 is the ASCII
                                   code for a carriage return.

         Other function key codes       F1=59,F2=60,F3=61,F4=62,F5=63
                                        F6=64,F7=65,F8=66,F9=67,F10=68

========================================================================


            Note: ESC = ASCII #27, the left pointing arrow character

.--------------------- ANSI.SYS Quick Reference Guide ---------------------.
|    ------------------       -----------------       --------------       |
|    Display Attributes       Set Display Modes       Cursor Control       |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| ESC[1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8m      ESC[=<mode>H          ESC[<rows>A  Up        J |
|                                                 ESC[<rows>B  Down      H |
|   0    White on Black     0 25x40 BW            ESC[<rows>C  Right     W |
|   1    High intensity     1 25x40 Color         ESC[<rows>D  Left        |
|   2    Underscore (mda)   2 25x80 BW            ESC[<r;c>H   Move      1 |
|   5    Blink on           3 25x80 Color         ESC[s        Save      9 |
|   7    Reverse Video      4 200x320 Clr Gfx     ESC[u        Restore   9 |
|   8    Screen off         5 200x320 BW  Gfx     ESC[2J       CLS       1 |
|-------------------------- 6 200x640 B&W Gfx     ESC[K        Clear line  |
| Foreground    Background --------------------- ------------------------- |
|------------------------- ESC[=7l Line Wrap OFF  Keyboard Re-assignment   |
| 30  Black    40  Black   ESC[=7h Line Wrap ON  ------------------------- |
| 31  Red      41  Red     ---------------------  ESC[<code>;<result>p     |
| 32  Green    42  Green   If you ever have the                            |
| 33  Brown    43  Brown   problem where ANSI     Code/result may be ASC   |
| 34  Blue     44  Blue    is displayed at row    or scankey value. Result |
| 35  Magenta  45  Magenta 1 column 80 until it   may be characters within |
| 36  Cyan     46  Cyan    is done, use WordWrap  quotes for words to echo |
| 37  White    47  White   ON command above.      when key is pressed.     |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                           -Joe...@ptd.net-

============================================================================