ANSI to Synchronet Ctrl-A message format conversion utility
The ANS2ASC utility may be used to convert files encoded with ANSI X3.64 terminal escape sequences (e.g. *.ans files created/edited with an ANSI editor) into Ctrl-A encoded output (e.g. Synchronet *.asc or *.msg files).
This utility will convert basic non-animated ANSI files into Synchronet Ctrl-A
code files that can be displayed to color or monochrome ANSI terminal users with
attractive results as well as non-ANSI (e.g. TTY) terminal users. This allows you to use an ANSI
drawing program (such as TheDraw) to create your menus in ANSI and convert the
ANSI file to Ctrl-A message format for your .asc or .msg version of the same file (for non-ANSI or ANSI-monochrome users, respectively). Or you can
use the converted file for all users (terminal types) by keeping the ANSI (.ANS) version in
a directory other than your text/menu directory.
If, for example, you create a main menu with an ANSI drawing program that you
want your TTY and monochrome-ANSI users to see with attractive output, use
ANS2ASC to create the .mon and .asc versions.
Type: ans2asc main.ans main.mon
in your text/menu directory to create the monochrome version.
Type: ans2asc main.ans main.asc
in your text/menu directory to create the ASCII (non-ANSI) version.
If you rename main.ans file or move into a directory other than text/menu, then
you will not need the .mon version of the file as the .asc version will be used for all
terminal types.
This utility is also useful for creating colorful system, newuser, feedback
and other Synchronet .msg files for display. For example, create
text/system.ans with your favorite ANSI editor and then convert to .msg by
typing: ans2asc system.ans system.msg
The following ANSI terminal sequences (preceded by <ESC>[) are supported:
| ANSI | Ctrl-A Code | Explanation | Supported by ANSI.SYS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2J | L | Clear Screen (other J values are ignored) | Yes |
| K | > | Clear to end-of-line | Yes |
| #B | Move cursor down # lines, converted to # line-feeds | Yes | |
| #C | 7Fh-FFh | Move cursor right # columns | Yes |
| #D | Move cursor left # columns, converted to # backspaces or carriage-return if # >= 80 | Yes | |
| 0m | N | Normal attribute | Yes |
| 1m | H | High intensity | Yes |
| 2m | N | Low intensity * | No |
| 3m | I | Italic * | No |
| 4m | I | Underline * | No |
| 5m | I | Blink | Yes |
| 6m | I | Rapid Blink * | No |
| 7m | I | Reverse Video * | No |
| 8m | E1) | Concealed text * | No |
| 30m | K | Foreground black | Yes |
| 31m | R | Foreground red | Yes |
| 32m | G | Foreground green | Yes |
| 33m | Y | Foreground yellow | Yes |
| 34m | B | Foreground blue | Yes |
| 35m | M | Foreground magenta | Yes |
| 36m | C | Foreground cyan | Yes |
| 37m | W | Foreground white | Yes |
| 40m | 0 | Background black | Yes |
| 41m | 1 | Background red | Yes |
| 42m | 2 | Background green | Yes |
| 43m | 3 | Background yellow | Yes |
| 44m | 4 | Background blue | Yes |
| 45m | 5 | Background magenta | Yes |
| 46m | 6 | Background cyan | Yes |
| 47m | 7 | Background white | Yes |
ANS2ASC has the following command-line options:
| -clear | Insert a clear-screen code at the beginning of the output file |
| -pause | Append a pause (hit a key) code to the end of the output file |
| -delay <value> | Interval (in bytes) to insert a 1/10th second delay code - lower numbers equal “slower” files, delay value must be a positive non-zero integer |
In general, animated ANSI files cannot be converted to equivalent Ctrl-A files. Only cursor positioning ANSI sequences which can be converted to non-ANSI equivalents (e.g. cursor-right or cursor-down positioning) may be converted to Ctrl-A codes. If you see the following warning message from ANS2ASC, that indicates that you most likely are trying to convert an ANSI file with unsupported animation sequences:
Unsupported ANSI code 'x' (0xYY)"
Some ANSI editing programs will save ANSI files with unsupported cursor positioning sequences by default. To avoid saving unsupported cursor positioning sequences when using the TheDraw, for example, use the Block-Save feature.