Save Console as text file

[Hayden Coon]

Alas, another Nubie problem:
I come from a Mac FB environment, attracted by PBCC's execution speeds and rich command selection. I would like to be able to save the console (page 1) as a text file that could then be read and printed from any of the word processing programs that do .txt files. I have mined these forums but I don't find much help - at least that I can grasp at this point. I can imagine it by doing parallel Print and file commands - or by somehow storing console lines in an array to be read into a file for output, but these seem more devious than PB's developers must have intended. Is there a simple way to do this that I'm overlooking? Thanks for any help - especially pointers to code.

[Mel Bishop]

I've been using this style for some time now. Typing this off the cuff so there's probably some mistakes:

function pbmain()
    local row as long
    local col as long
    local y as long

    open "somefile.txt" for binary as #1

    for row = 1 to {number of lines}
    for col = 1 to {number of columns}
    y = screen(row,col)
    put$ #1,chr$(y)
    next col
    put$ #1,$crlf
    next row
    close #1
    end function

'course, there may be an API you could use but I'm not aware of it. Hope this helps.

And, of course, welcome to the board.

[Dale Yarker]

Don't know if this will help:

From Win32 Programmer's Reference for API for ReadFile function

" ... Characters can be read from the console input buffer by using ReadFile with a handle to console input. The console mode determines the exact behavior of the ReadFile function. ..."

[Fred Harris]

Hayden,

Mel's suggestion looks good to me. Doesn't that work? Unless I am misunderstanding what you want, ReadFile() won't do you any good. That Api function reads characters from the console input buffer, something like basic's Inkey$ function.

Fred

[Michael Mattias]

Unless I am misunderstanding what you want, ReadFile() won't do you any good

If you want to do 'something' in Real Time, ReadFile() could be a terrific way to accomplish it... and quite possibly the ONLY way to do it, depending on the application.

But if what you want is "give me a text file image of the current screen" then I, too, like Mel's solution: simple is better.

[Hayden Coon]

Dear all,
Thanks very much - I'm happy to have the code and shall use it. I guess I'll need to include an input stataement after Waitkey$ to allow me to call the function -- iff I want to save the console (or portiions thereof) or not. If it were my choice, I'd include a "SaveCons" with line range inputs in a future PBCC command set.
Again, many thanks. It is a great comfort to a somewhat bewildered Neubie to have your support!
Hayden

[Fred Harris]

Hayden,

What you wanted to do struck me as unusual and I had never tried anything like that so I gave it a whirl using Mel's suggestion. It worked OK. Here is the program. It prints out exactly what is on the screen to an output.txt file in the program's directory.

#Compile Exe
#Dim All

Function PBMain() As Long
  Local r,c,fp As Long
  Register i As Long
  Register j As Long
  Local byt As Byte

  Console Set Screen 80,80
  fp=Freefile
  Open "Output.txt" For Output As #fp
  Print "extern 'C' __declspec(dllexport) void __stdcall LoadEditCells(HWND hGrid)"
  Print "{"
  Print " DWORD dwGridNum,dwBufferNum;"
  Print " unsigned int i,j,k,iRange,iRows;"
  Print " MyScrollInfo* pMyScrollInfo;"
  Print " wchar_t** pData;"
  Print " HANDLES* pHdls;"
  Print " SIZES* pSizes;"
  Print " HWND hCell;"
  Print ""
  Print " pHdls=(HANDLES*)GetWindowLong(hGrid,0);"
  Print " pSizes=(SIZES*)GetWindowLong(hGrid,4);"
  Print " pData=(wchar_t**)GetWindowLong(hGrid,8);"
  Print " pMyScrollInfo=(MyScrollInfo*)GetWindowLong(hGrid,12);"
  Print " iRange=pSizes->nGridCols;"
  Print " iRows=pSizes->nGridRows;"
  Print " k=pMyScrollInfo->yPos;"
  Print " for(i=1;i<=iRows;i++)"
  Print " {"
  Print "     if(k<=pSizes->nBufferRows)"
  Print "     {"
  Print "        for(j=1;j<=iRange;j++)"
  Print "        {"
  Print "            dwGridNum=dwLoc(i,j);"
  Print "            hCell=pHdls->pCells[dwGridNum];"
  Print "            dwBufferNum=dwLoc(k,j);"
  Print "            SetWindowLong(hCell,0,(long)pData[dwBufferNum]);"
  Print "        }"
  Print "        k++;"
  Print "     }"
  Print " }"
  Print "}"
  For i=1 To Screeny
    For j=1 To ScreenX
      Print #fp, Chr$(Screen(i,j));
    Next j
    Print #fp,
  Next i
  Close #fp
  Waitkey$

  PBMain=0
End Function

[Adam J. Drake]

If you are interested in speed, and don't mind an API call, and know the size of your console, SaveConsole1 seems to run about 1.2 times faster than SaveConsole2 per call. Although - the API call does not put $CRLF at the end of each line...

FUNCTION SaveConsole1() AS STRING
    
    LOCAL hOut      AS DWORD
    LOCAL szChar    AS ASCIIZ * 6401
    LOCAL nLength   AS LONG
    LOCAL dwCoord   AS DWORD
    LOCAL lpNumChar AS LONG
    LOCAL lRet      AS LONG
    LOCAL tmp       AS STRING

    dwCoord = 0
    hOut = GetStdHandle(%STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE)
    nLength = 6400
    
    lRet = ReadConsoleOutputCharacter(hOut, szChar, nLength, dwCoord, lpNumChar)
    
    tmp = szChar
    FUNCTION = tmp
    
END FUNCTION

FUNCTION SaveConsole2() AS STRING
    
    LOCAL x, y  AS LONG
    LOCAL tmp   AS STRING
    
    FOR y = 1 TO SCREENY
        FOR x = 1 TO SCREENX
            tmp = tmp + CHR$(SCREEN(y, x))
        NEXT
        tmp = tmp + $CRLF
    NEXT
    
    FUNCTION = tmp
    
END FUNCTION

[Roy Cline]

See

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682088(VS.85).aspx

The console location in memory can be obtained.
Using this information and a knowledge of how the screen buffers is laid out a direct memory to disk can be worked out.

I have no interest in doing same.

I do pre-build screens and switch the active screen for speed.

[Hayden Coon]

Again, thank you all. I tried Mel's code (as written) and it worked perfectly for my purposes.
Now, suppose I want to reverse the process? Is that more or less a reverse of this or are there some pit-falls in reading from a file into the console?
I'm passing surprised that Fred found this desire "unusual". I write simulations (genetic and neural) and there is output that I want to save and sometimes print out and put in a notebook. (Primitive, I know.) But I should think that many users would want to be able to save their results and later print them out... But I don't want to save every run, often I want to see the results and go back and tweek the code and see the results again - so I put in a INPUT "do you want to save as a .txt file?" dialog. When I get to it - I'll be making some Graphics files for graphs of the output - and then, I'll probably need help in saving and printiing them. I have Console Tools (std) but probably should have gotten the Pro version...
Thank you all, I'm a happy PB'er now. Hayden

[Mel Bishop]

To reverse the process, simply open the file for INPUT AS #1. Then:

for x = 1 to rows
line input #1,txt$
locate x,1
print;txt$
next x

If you use various (more than one) colors in your screen(s), you will lose the colors restoring your text to the screen. You may be able to use Roy's suggestion by reading the memory location of the console screen. Pretty sure that will retain the various colors. Check out PEEK$ and POKE$.

[Adam J. Drake]

You can do so with ReadConsoleOutput and WriteConsoleOutput:

#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL

#INCLUDE "WIN32API.INC"

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG

    LOCAL hOut          AS DWORD
    LOCAL lpBuffer      AS DWORD
    LOCAL dwBufferSize  AS DWORD
    LOCAL dwBufferCoord AS DWORD
    LOCAL lpReadRegion  AS SMALL_RECT
    LOCAL lpWriteRegion AS SMALL_RECT
    
    hOut = GetStdHandle(%STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE)
    
    dwBufferSize = MAKDWD(80, 80)
    dwBufferCoord = 0
    
    DIM pCharInfo(1 TO 6400) AS CHAR_INFO
    
    lpBuffer = VARPTR(pCharInfo(1))
    
    lpReadRegion.xLeft = 0
    lpReadRegion.xTop = 0
    lpReadRegion.xRight = 79
    lpReadRegion.xBottom = 79
    
    TYPE SET lpWriteRegion = lpReadRegion

    CONSOLE SET SCREEN 80,80

    COLOR 15, 1
    CLS

    PRINT "extern 'C' __declspec(dllexport) void __stdcall LoadEditCells(HWND hGrid)"
    PRINT "{"
    PRINT " DWORD dwGridNum,dwBufferNum;"
    PRINT " unsigned int i,j,k,iRange,iRows;"
    PRINT " MyScrollInfo* pMyScrollInfo;"
    PRINT " wchar_t** pData;"
    PRINT " HANDLES* pHdls;"
    PRINT " SIZES* pSizes;"
    PRINT " HWND hCell;"
    PRINT ""
    PRINT " pHdls=(HANDLES*)GetWindowLong(hGrid,0);"
    PRINT " pSizes=(SIZES*)GetWindowLong(hGrid,4);"
    PRINT " pData=(wchar_t**)GetWindowLong(hGrid,8);"
    PRINT " pMyScrollInfo=(MyScrollInfo*)GetWindowLong(hGrid,12);"
    PRINT " iRange=pSizes->nGridCols;"
    PRINT " iRows=pSizes->nGridRows;"
    PRINT " k=pMyScrollInfo->yPos;"
    PRINT " for(i=1;i<=iRows;i++)"
    PRINT " {"
    PRINT "     if(k<=pSizes->nBufferRows)"
    PRINT "     {"
    PRINT "        for(j=1;j<=iRange;j++)"
    PRINT "        {"
    PRINT "            dwGridNum=dwLoc(i,j);"
    PRINT "            hCell=pHdls->pCells[dwGridNum];"
    PRINT "            dwBufferNum=dwLoc(k,j);"
    PRINT "            SetWindowLong(hCell,0,(long)pData[dwBufferNum]);"
    PRINT "        }"
    PRINT "        k++;"
    PRINT "     }"
    PRINT " }"
    PRINT "}"
    
    ReadConsoleOutput hOut, lpBuffer, dwBufferSize, dwBufferCoord, lpReadRegion
    
    STDOUT "Console Buffer read, press any key to clear screen..."

    WAITKEY$
    
    COLOR 7, 0
    
    CLS
    
    PRINT "Press a key to restore buffer..."
    
    WAITKEY$
    
    WriteConsoleOutput hOut, lpBuffer, dwBufferSize, dwBufferCoord, lpWriteRegion
    
    WAITKEY$

END FUNCTION

[Guy Dombrowski]

Simple is better...

Hayden,

If you are going to add graphics and you want to keep it simple, you could use the little freeware PRINTKEY.EXE that
capture the console screen by simply hitting the good old Print Screen Key on your keyboard.
It will save the whole screen or only part of it as BMP format with any graphics and colors.
So, you will be able to take a picture anytime you will need it and give it a significant name.
Google it with PRINTKEY.EXE and Alfred Bollinger

[Adam J. Drake]

Simple is better yes, however, the tools are available at your finger tips through some PB functionality and the Windows API to allow you to screen cap to the clipboard and to a file:

#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL

#INCLUDE "WIN32API.INC"

GLOBAL hBmpGraphic AS LONG

FUNCTION PBMAIN() AS LONG

    STDOUT "Testing, 1, 2, 3, 4"

    CALL ScreenCapture(CONSHNDL)

    WAITKEY$

    IF hBmpGraphic THEN
        GRAPHIC SAVE "C:\TEST.BMP"
        GRAPHIC ATTACH hBmpGraphic, 0
        GRAPHIC BITMAP END
    END IF

    ShellExecute %HWND_DESKTOP, "open", "C:\TEST.BMP", "", "", %SW_SHOWNORMAL

END FUNCTION

SUB ScreenCapture(hWnd AS DWORD)

    LOCAL hDC       AS DWORD
    LOCAL nWidth    AS LONG
    LOCAL nHeight   AS LONG
    LOCAL hMemDC    AS DWORD
    LOCAL hBmp      AS DWORD
    LOCAL hBmpOld   AS DWORD
    LOCAL rc        AS RECT
    LOCAL x, y      AS LONG
    LOCAL lClr      AS LONG

    GetWindowRect hWnd, rc

    nWidth=rc.nRight-rc.nLeft
    nHeight=rc.nBottom-rc.nTop

    hDC=GetWindowDC(hWnd)

    hMemDC=CreateCompatibleDC(hDC)
    hBmp=CreateCompatibleBitmap(hDC, nWidth, nHeight)
    hBmpOld=SelectObject(hMemDC, hBmp)

    BitBlt hMemDC, 0, 0, nWidth, nHeight, hDC, 0, 0, %SRCCOPY
    CALL CopyToGraphicBitmap(hDC, nWidth, nHeight, 0, 0)

    IF OpenClipboard(%HWND_DESKTOP) THEN
        EmptyClipboard
        SetClipboardData %CF_BITMAP, hBmp
        CloseClipboard
    ELSE
        ' Error
    END IF

END SUB

SUB CopyToGraphicBitmap(hDC AS DWORD, nWidth AS LONG, nHeight AS LONG, xPos AS LONG, yPos AS LONG)

    LOCAL hDCGFX    AS DWORD
    LOCAL x2        AS LONG
    LOCAL y2        AS LONG

    IF hBmpGraphic THEN
        GRAPHIC ATTACH hBmpGraphic, 0
        GRAPHIC BITMAP END
        RESET hBmpGraphic
    END IF

    GRAPHIC BITMAP NEW nWidth, nHeight TO hBmpGraphic
    GRAPHIC ATTACH hBmpGraphic, 0

    GRAPHIC GET DC TO hDCGFX

    BitBlt hDCGFX, 0, 0, nWidth, nHeight, hDC, xPos, yPos, %SRCCOPY

END SUB

[Paul Purvis]

here is the a tsr to print the screen to a device:lpt1..lpt4 or to a file.
i had help here in writing this code and i believe the source is listed here.
you can get the the first version which i have been using and the second i worked on but never really tried, but i believe it works ok.
this was written for msdos and is a tsr.
it might buy you some time till you get the software going like you want.
even though i compiled it, i had much help, therefore i can not call this jewel my own.

pressing F12 will dump the screen in text mode to whatever you placed on the command line.

you could use another(write) a program to monitor the directory for file changes if you wanted to print to a windows printer or do whatever with the text from the console window.
the program works well with network printers
you can redirect a lpt? port to a networked printer or

to a usb printer that has been setup to be a shared device.
if you have the file/printer sharing installed in your network connections dialog, you can share a device on you local computer and not
have the file/printer sharing turned on(checked) and still use the usb device as a shared device on your local computer and not body else
well be able to share your file/printers

and something i never tried by should, would be to give the file name as a shared device like \\computer\printersharename, never really thought about that one.

http://pdptemp.dyndns.org/zipcode

tsrpscrn.zip

paul

[Michael Mattias]

SaveConsole1 seems to run about 1.2 times faster than SaveConsole2 per call.

Any 'slowness' in SaveConsole2 has nothing to do with console I-O. It's caused by our old friend 'needless string concatenation""

FOR y = 1 TO SCREENY
        FOR x = 1 TO SCREENX
            tmp = tmp + CHR$(SCREEN(y, x))
        NEXT
        tmp = tmp + $CRLF
NEXT

Just build a buffer to hold all the characters first. Instead of contenating each character individually, use MID$= to replace the characters

Let's see if I can do this on-line....

nRow = ScreenY
nCol   = ScreenX 

Buff = SPACE$(NRow*nCol  +  2*nRow)   ' add 2* nrow to make space for a CRLF each row

iPos = 0 

FOR y = 1 TO SCREENY
        FOR x = 1 TO SCREENX
            INCR ipos
            MID$(BUff, iPos1, 1) =  CHR$(SCREEN(y, x))
         NEXT
         INCR ipos
         MID$ (BUff, iPos, 2 ) = $CRLF
         INCR ipos    ' for the CR
         INCR ipos    ' for the LF
NEXT

Heck, that's gotta be close, anyway.

Never do lots of string concatenation like this when you don't have too... unless you want to have your software run like a dog.

All the WinApi calls in the world are not going to help near as much as will using good technique with the intrinsic BASIC language tools provided.

The fault, Dear Brutus, is not in our stars, it is in our selves.

MCM

[Michael Mattias]

(Yes, I know. I could have used BYTE PTRs and avoided all the CHR$() calls. But that would obfuscate my main point).

[Donald Darden]

There is An Easier Way

You can copy and paste all or part of the console screen output by just using your mouse and keyboard. Drag the mouse over the sections that you want to copy with the left button held down. But the copy function is not activated with the expected Ctrl+C combo. Instead, just press the Enter key. That will put the info on the keyboard. Then you can paste it elsewhere using the normal Ctrl+V key combo.

Note: If you plan to do this, do not try to use WAITKEY$ to pause your program, because you might satisfy it when you press the Enter key or a cursor movement key and lose your displayed output. You can substitute a DO:LOOP to make the screen stick around, or test for a specific key, such as $ESC being pressed to terminate the program or clear the screen at that point.