Ok, I'm remembering back to the days of BASIC, when it was simple to set the text cursor location using the LOCATE <x>,<y> command.

I'm for the 20th time, trying to learn C, and maybe this time I'll get past "Hello World". There's so much to learn, and I guess I'll just have to bombard you with questions as they come to me.

I'd like to be able to do the same thing as LOCATE in C, but I can't find any specific references. What is the best way to do this?

P.S. These days, when text consoles can actually be different dimensions (virtual consoles can be resized), this seems like it could be problematic, or at least an interesting feat.

This sort of interactive control is generally done using ncurses.

gotoxy in MS-DOS and in curses you use move

ncurses

But as you trying to learn C and you are at the "Hello World" level, ncurses might be a bit overwhelming. I understand, you need a user interface for your programs. It might be better to create selection lists at first: (1) do this, (2) do that, (3) exit.... and read the integer.

In DOS locate was easy to use because there was just one program running, you had access to the screen buffer, and the screen was always 80x25. Look at the nasty results of this oversimplified approach when EGA cards were introduced and did 80x43.

Ncurses is indeed the solution for windows, text input, selection bar and resized windows and everything you dream of in text mode, but it has a somewhat steep learning curve.

jlinkels