[fpc-pascal] Problems with writing to console

[James Richters]

> note that constants related to the windows 10 virtual terminal are not defined in FPC yet.
Correction:  They were not added as of 3.0.4.rc1, they have been added now, not sure exactly which version they are/were included.

James

-----Original Message-----
From: fpc-pascal [mailto:fpc-pascal-bounces at lists.freepascal.org] On Behalf Of James Richters
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 6:14 AM
To: 'FPC-Pascal users discussions' <fpc-pascal at lists.freepascal.org>
Subject: Re: [fpc-pascal] Problems with writing to console

If all you want is colors and simple positioning,  you could use Ansi escape codes instead of the CRT unit, then you would not have the issue with redirection and CRT not being supported.  Windows 10 builds after 10586 have re-enabled Ansi escape codes, however after build 14393 it is no longer enabled for executables by default.  It can be enabled with SetConsoleMode();   note that constants related to the windows 10 virtual terminal are not defined in FPC yet.  Here's a FPC example:

Const
   ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING =$0004;
Var dwOriginalOutMode, dwRequestedOutModes, dwRequestedInModes, dwOutMode:Dword;
Begin
GetConsoleMode(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), dwOriginalOutMode);
dwRequestedOutModes := ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING;
dwOutMode := dwOriginalOutMode OR dwRequestedOutModes;
SetConsoleMode(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), dwOutMode);
Writeln('^<ESC^>[30m ',#27,'[30mBlack',#27,'[0m (black)');
Writeln('^<ESC^>[31m ',#27,'[31mRed',#27,'[0m');
Writeln('^<ESC^>[32m ',#27,'[32mGreen',#27,'[0m');
Writeln('^<ESC^>[33m ',#27,'[33mYellow',#27,'[0m');
Writeln('^<ESC^>[34m ',#27,'[34mBlue',#27,'[0m');
Writeln('^<ESC^>[35m ',#27,'[35mMagenta',#27,'[0m');
Writeln('^<ESC^>[36m ',#27,'[36mCyan',#27,'[0m');
Writeln('^<ESC^>[37m ',#27,'[37mWhite',#27,'[0m');
Readln;
End.

See full example attached.    Of course the program is intended to run on versions of random versions of windows, many of which had Ansi capability disabled, then this would not be a potential solution.  Windows 3.11, Windows 95 and Windows 98 had Ansi capability, but Windows 2000, Windows XP, Widnows 7, and Windows 10 before build 10586 did not, then Windows 10 build 10586 had Ansi capability again by default until Build 14393 where it still had Ansi Capability but not turned on by default anymore.

James