>> > After getting the technicalities out of the way, maybe I should have >> > asked: >> >> > Is it only me or others would find a platform independent python API >> > to clear the terminal useful?
> I don't know much, but just in case the following is useful to anyone: > > There is a Windows program called 'ansicon', which when installed (run > with '-i'), will modify all future Windows cmd shells to correctly > intercept and interpret ANSI escape codes for colors, cursor movement, > and: > > \e[#J ED: Erase Display > > which I presume is what is under discussion here. I understand there > are other historical ANSI drivers which were responsible for achieving > a similar thing under Windows, but this is the method I currently use > (on XP) and am very happy with. > > Also, and probably less usefully, personally I do wish Python provided > a cross platform mechanism for simple terminal control like clearing > and colored text. Since ANSI codes are used everywhere except Windows, > it would make sense to base such a system on them. So I started a pure > Python implementation of a crude ANSI driver, on PyPI as 'colorama'. > It does nothing on non-windows systems, but on Windows it patches > sys.stdout with a stream-like object, in order to filter out ANSI > codes and convert them into Win32 terminal control calls. It currently > only works with colors and brightness, but I would love to extend it > to cover other ANSI codes such as 'clear screen'. It is doubtless > riddled with errors and misunderstandings, and I would love any > feedback helping me do a better job. Thanks, I didn't know about 'colorama' before but it surely looks promising! I'll look into it for future reference, once in a while I like having pretty output without the hassle of 'curses' or other complicated stuff. Cheers, Daniel -- Psss, psss, put it down! - http://www.cafepress.com/putitdown -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list