Help me out.....

rajsun · 03-22-2005, 07:06 AM

hi all,
i'm rajesh new to Linux programming. i want move my consol based curssor to desired position. i used the

system("tput cup x y");

but fail to place the curssor at (x,y) coordinate. is there any escape sequences which can place the curssor to desired location in screen(console) without using ncurses.

if any then please help me out .
waiting for ur responses.....
rajesh.

TheLinuxDuck · 03-22-2005, 08:31 AM

I assume that you're using C.

No offense meant, but systeming out to do this is not good.
In the first place, system is creating it's own instance of the
shell. Even though the cursor is being moved in that shell, once
the command finishes, the shell is closed, and now the program
is back to it's own shell.

Secondly, you can read why using system is bad on the
system man page.

However, as long as the terminal in which you are working supports
ANSI escape codes (which it should), then you can easily printf
ansi escape codes to accomplish the cursor placement.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
  printf(
      "\e[s"               // save cursor position
      "\e[5;10f"           // go to line 5, column 10
      "Located at 5,10"    // print something at location
      "\e[u"               // return to stored cuirsor position
      "Done!\n"
  );

  return 0;
}

Just google search for ansi escape codes for all sorts of other interesting
things you can do with them.

sandipan · 03-24-2005, 07:10 AM

using curses should make it a lot more easier, u got function like "mvprintw" to print ur output to a particular position on screen.

TheLinuxDuck · 03-24-2005, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sandipan
using curses should make it a lot more easier, u got function like "mvprintw" to print ur output to a particular position on screen.

Easier? I completely disagree. Ncurses is bloated when you don't need all it's power. If you only need some selective color settings and positional movement: A simple function, like:

Code:

void gotoxy(const int x, const int y) {
  printf("\e[%d;%d%c", y, x, 'H');
}

and now your cursor movement code is finished and easy to use... and doesn't add the overhead that ncurses adds to the binary. As for colors, set an enum equal to the color numbers, and write a simple function to handle colors.. seems alot easier to me.