Announcement

**Fred Buffington** · 9 Dec 2008, 06:00 PM

You might use the screen function which is basically the same as QBs.
and the SCREENATTR for the color attribute

ASCIIVAL&=SCREEN(ROW&,COL&)
C%=SCREENATTR(ROW&,COL&)

**Roy Bauer** · 10 Dec 2008, 08:34 AM

Thanks, Fred. That will require some recoding, but it is a better solution.

**Michael Mattias** · 10 Dec 2008, 08:50 AM

Wouldn't keeping track of what you or the user put on the screen be an even better solution?

Nuthin' goes on that screen save what you PRINT or the user types when you give him a LINE INPUT or INKEY$/WAITKEY$ to do it with.

Screen-scraping like this was fairly popular 'back in the day' when you could have TSR programs putting stuff on your MS-DOS screen from somewhere other than within your program... but ain't no such thing under Windows.

MCM

**Fred Buffington** · 10 Dec 2008, 11:28 AM

I agree with Michael.

I modify an old QB4.0 program for a company in IL that reads the characters from the screen to redo lcase to ucase and fractions to decimal and also to
print to the printer. Extremely slow, in my opinion, but it's their program.

**Roy Bauer** · 10 Dec 2008, 03:54 PM

Well, I am still horsing around with this.

Has anyone out there ever found a way to get the address of a CONSOLE SCREEN buffer?

**Chris Holbrook** · 10 Dec 2008, 04:00 PM

yes - http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pb...=screen+scrape

**Fred Buffington** · 10 Dec 2008, 05:14 PM

another possibility is to use contools.

Code:

sResult$ = ConsolePEEK(lType&, _
                       lRow&, _
                       lColumn&, _
                       lLength&)

Contools is a third party add-on that is highly recommended by PB.
The consolepeek gets the info from the input buffer according to the hlp file.
It also has neat things like texboxes, Progress bar, and lots more.

**Jerry Fielden** · 10 Dec 2008, 08:48 PM

del

**Michael Mattias** · 10 Dec 2008, 09:18 PM

>You might be interested in doing block copy and paste for the console screens.

PCOPY, PAGE

**Fred Buffington** · 10 Dec 2008, 10:55 PM

Just note that QB pages start at 0 and PB pages start at 1 for pcopy and page. (QB uses screen(mode,colorswitch,apage,vpage instead of page)

**Michael Mattias** · 13 Dec 2008, 09:45 AM

Has anyone out there ever found a way to get the address of a CONSOLE SCREEN buffer

I'm not sure there is a user-accessible address to anything. I am sure you should not be doing anything with it even if you can find it.

Lots of stuff in Windows does not work the way MS-DOS did.... specifically, Windows is really, really, REALLY short on "real" things and very, very, VERY long on "virtual" things.

That said, Windows supports doing a lot of things with a simple function call to its API, things you could not do under MS-DOS except by PEEK'ing and POKE'ing or calling an &h10 or &h21 interrupt.

MCM

**Chris Holbrook** · 13 Dec 2008, 12:15 PM

Originally posted by Michael Mattias View Post

Lots of stuff in Windows does not work the way MS-DOS did.... specifically, Windows is really, really, REALLY short on "real" things and very, very, VERY long on "virtual" things.

this (extract from code via link in post #7 above) is a way of getting the console:

Code:

                        getWindowThreadProcessID(hWnd,BYVAL VARPTR(dwPid))
                        IF AttachConsole(@dwpid) = 0 THEN
                            ? "failed to attach console",%MB_TASKMODAL,"error"
                            EXIT SELECT
                        END IF
                        hConsole = GetStdHandle(%STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE)
                        GetConsoleWindow
                        IF 0 = readConsoleOutputCharacter(hConsole, BYVAL VARPTR (szbuffer), 2000, BYVAL 0, lcount) THEN
                            ? "failed to read console",%MB_TASKMODAL,"error"
                            EXIT SELECT
                        END IF
                        ? STR$(lcount) + szbuffer
                        FreeConsole ()

Nothing like reading the console buffer at 0xB800, is it?

Also, ISTR that the buffer supplied is a "Read Only" buffer - you cannot write to the screen of that DOS application, more's the pity. PLEASE someone tell my I'm wrong!

**Jerry Fielden** · 13 Dec 2008, 10:31 PM

Chris you can use the same buffer/string when you write back using ReadConsoleOutputCharacter API. I do it all the time with WriteConsoleOutput after doing a ReadConsoleOutput. Or did I misunderstand you?

Notice the SUB CopyArea that uses ReadConsoleOutput API can read in 1 charecter by making a call like CopyArea 1, 1, 1, 1, Buf$, it also reads in its Color attribute in that one call. To write that one Character back to the bottom right, just use PasteArea 24, 80, 24, 80, Buf$

I don't use Read & WriteConsoleOutputCharacter because I have to make an extra call to also get its color. Thanks to Semen, I started using the WriteConsoleOutput method.

Below is a couple of subs I wrote to let me block copy any portion of a screen and put it back, even 1 character. Also a little speed test using Pcopy verses the APIs. You won't see a screen for a while because of the printing in Page.

Code:

#COMPILE EXE
#REGISTER NONE
 #INCLUDE "C:\PBCC40\WINAPI\WIN32API.INC"
 
 
 SUB CopyArea (r1&, c1&, r2&, c2&, Buf$)       'Copy any area up to full screen
     LOCAL SIZE AS DWORD
     LOCAL Rectangl AS SMALL_RECT
     Buf$ = SPACE$((c2&+1-c1&) * (r2&+1-r1&) * 4)
     SIZE = MAKDWD(c2&+1-c1&, r2&+1-r1&)
     Rectangl.xTop = r1&-1                                ' Set Row and column
     Rectangl.xLeft = c1&-1                           ' address of all 4 sides
     Rectangl.xBottom = r2&-1                        ' of a Rectangl for Read
     Rectangl.xRight = c2&-1                                    ' or for Write.
     ReadConsoleOutput GETSTDOUT, BYVAL STRPTR(Buf$), BYVAL SIZE, 0&, Rectangl
 END SUB


 SUB PasteArea (r1&, c1&, r2&, c2&, Buf$)        'Paste area up to full screen
    LOCAL SIZE AS DWORD
    LOCAL Rectangl AS SMALL_RECT
    SIZE = MAKDWD(c2&+1-c1&, r2&+1-r1&)           'Size of rectangle
    Rectangl.xTop = r1&-1                       ' Set Row and column
    Rectangl.xLeft = c1&-1                      ' address of all 4 sides
    Rectangl.xBottom = r2&-1                    ' of a Rectangle for Read
    Rectangl.xRight = c2&-1                     ' or for Write.
    WriteConsoleOutput GETSTDOUT, BYVAL STRPTR(Buf$), BYVAL SIZE, 0&, Rectangl
    Buf$ = ""
 END SUB
                                              
 
 '====================================================================================
 '                     M a i n
 '====================================================================================
 
FUNCTION PBMAIN()
    
' Using PCOPY and Print, printing 24x80 screen 100 times
    
 t&=TIMER
 PCOPY 1,2 : PAGE 2, 1
 FOR xx& = 1 TO 100
  FOR row& = 1 TO 24
   FOR col&= 1 TO 80
     tmp$= CHR$(row& + 64)
     tAtrib&=row& + 15
     bg&= tAtrib&\16  : fg& = tAtrib& MOD 16
     LOCATE row&, col& : COLOR fg&, bg&
     PRINT Tmp$;
   NEXT
  NEXT
 NEXT xx&
 PCOPY 2, 1 : PAGE 1, 1
 t2&= TIMER-t&
 COLOR 0, 15
 LOCATE 25, 60: PRINT STR$(t2&);

WAITKEY$


' Using Write & Fill Console APIs.........Much faster than Pcopy method

COLOR 0,0: CLS



 hOut& = GETSTDOUT
 t&=TIMER
 FOR xx& = 1 TO 100
  FOR row& = 0 TO 23
   FOR col&= 1 TO 80
     tmp$= CHR$(row& + 64)
     tAtrib&=row& + 15
     WriteConsoleOutputCharacter hOut&, BYCOPY Tmp$, LEN(Tmp$), MAKDWD(col&, row&), 0
     FillConsoleOutputAttribute hOut&, tAtrib&, LEN(Tmp$), MAKDWD(col&, row&), 0
   NEXT
  NEXT
 NEXT xx&
 t2&=TIMER-t&
 COLOR 0,15
 LOCATE 25, 60: PRINT STR$(t2&);
 WAITKEY$


' Somebody else had written the first two test, I added this last test to show the WriteConsoleOutput method.

' Using WriteConsoleOutput API to do the 100 Screens

   CopyArea 1, 1, 24, 80, Buf$    'Copy it into Buf$ before using CLS
   
     COLOR 0,0: CLS

   t&=TIMER

   FOR xx& = 1 TO 100
     PasteArea 1, 1, 24, 80, Buf$
   NEXT xx&
   
   
  t2&=TIMER-t&
  COLOR 0,15
  LOCATE 25, 60: PRINT STR$(t2&);
  WAITKEY$
  
  
END FUNCTION

On my machine it takes 25 seconds to print the 24x80 screen 100 times wrapped in PCOPY.

It takes 8 seconds using the second test, using WriteConsoleOutputCharacter

It took a whooping 1 second using the PasteArea Sub, the WriteConsoleOutput method.

I've been testing this method for almost 10 years and, no failure yet. My Screen Making program, everything in it uses this method.

**Michael Mattias** · 14 Dec 2008, 08:15 AM

>>Has anyone out there ever found a way to get the address of a CONSOLE SCREEN buffer?
>yes - http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pb...=screen+scrape

That link does not "get the address" of a CONSOLE SCREEN buffer; it does, however, scrape the screen.

"Get the address" is one "how"; the link provides another "how"; the code on this page is yet another "how."

You might think "Scrape the screen" is the "what," but you'd be wrong about that. "Scrape the screen" is just another "how", the "what" being, " how do I get what is currently on my screen?"

Oh, yes, another "how?" "Keep track of what you put on it."

**Jerry Fielden** · 14 Dec 2008, 12:51 PM

Roy,

Here's an example of ReadConsoleOutputCharacter and WriteConsoleOutputCharacter, plucking a box out of the center of the screen and displaying it at a different location, reading in one character at a time.

You don't need to know the screen address in memory to do this.

It might be the closes thing to your dos peek and poke.

Code:

#COMPILE EXE


 #INCLUDE "C:\PBCC40\WINAPI\WIN32API.INC"



 SUB fillscreen()
  PCOPY 1, 2 :PAGE 2, 1
  COLOR 1, 11
  FOR r& = 1 TO SCREENY                   ' Fill 25x80 screen with chars .
    FOR c& = 1 TO SCREENX
        PRINT CHR$(176);
    NEXT c&
  NEXT r&
  SLEEP 500
   COLOR 14, 1 : LOCATE 10, 32                               'make a box
   LOCATE 11, 32:PRINT CHR$(201, 205, 205, 205, 205, 205, 205, 205, 205, _
              205, 205, 205, 205, 205, 205, 187)
   LOCATE 12, 32:PRINT CHR$(186) + "  This is an  " + CHR$(186)
   LOCATE 13, 32:PRINT CHR$(186) + "   API Test   " + CHR$(186)
   COLOR 15, 4
   LOCATE 14, 32:PRINT CHR$(186) + " for copying  " + CHR$(186)
   LOCATE 15, 32:PRINT CHR$(186) + " Text AREAS   " + CHR$(186)
   LOCATE 16, 32:PRINT CHR$(200, 205, 205, 205, 205, 205, 205, 205, 205, _
              205, 205, 205, 205, 205, 205, 188)
   PCOPY 2, 1 : PAGE 1, 1

 END SUB


 FUNCTION PBMAIN ()
    LOCAL col AS LONG, nbr AS LONG
    LOCAL Row AS LONG

    LOCAL Buffer() AS STRING      ' Array for the characters
    LOCAL Buffer2() AS LONG     ' Array for its colors

    CONSOLE SET SCREEN 25, 80

    FillScreen                    ' Fill up the screen

    REDIM Buffer(1 TO 2000)
    REDIM Buffer2(1 TO 2000)

   'Picking out the Box in the center of the screen

   FOR row = 10 TO 15
     FOR col = 31 TO 46
       INCR nbr

       Buffer(nbr) = SPACE$(1)
     
       ReadConsoleOutputCharacter _              'Read a Character
       GETSTDOUT, BYVAL STRPTR(Buffer(nbr)), _
       1, BYVAL MAKDWD(col, Row), 0
       
       ReadConsoleOutputAttribute _               'Read its color
       GETSTDOUT, Buffer2(nbr), _
       1, BYVAL MAKDWD(col, Row), 0
       

     NEXT col
   NEXT row

   SLEEP 3000
    COLOR 0,7:CLS
   PRINT " The screen is cleared to reshow box in bottom right corner"
   PRINT " using the WriteConsoleOutputCharacter API without any color added"
   SLEEP 3000

   nbr = 0      ' Reset nbr is needed

  FOR row = 19 TO 24
    FOR col = 64 TO 79

       INCR nbr

       WriteConsoleOutputCharacter _               'Write a character
       GETSTDOUT,  BYVAL STRPTR(Buffer(nbr)), _
       1, BYVAL MAKDWD(col, row), 0

     '  WriteConsoleOutputAttribute _                'Write its colors
     '  GETSTDOUT,  Buffer2(nbr), _
     '  1, BYVAL MAKDWD(col, row), 0

   NEXT col
  NEXT row


   SLEEP 3000

   nbr = 0      ' Reset nbr is needed

  FOR row = 19 TO 24
    FOR col = 64 TO 79

       INCR nbr

      ' WriteConsoleOutputCharacter _               'Write a character
      ' GETSTDOUT,  BYVAL STRPTR(Buffer(nbr)), _
      ' 1, BYVAL MAKDWD(col, row), 0

       WriteConsoleOutputAttribute _                'Write its colors
       GETSTDOUT,  Buffer2(nbr), _
       1, BYVAL MAKDWD(col, row), 0

   NEXT col
  NEXT row

  PRINT
  PRINT "Now showing its color using the WriteConsoleOutputAttribute API"



 WAITKEY$

END FUNCTION

**Michael Mattias** · 15 Dec 2008, 08:27 AM

It might be the closes thing to your dos peek and poke

Any use of pointer variables are PEEKs and POKEs. e.g

Code:

Z? =   PEEK(address) 
'is equivalent to 
LOCAL pB AS BYTE PTR 
pb =  VARPTR(something) or any other address. 
Z? =  @pB

The only (!!) real difference between PEEKing/POKEing in MS-DOS and Windows is, under MS-DOS the address is REAL and under Windows it is VIRTUAL.

MCM

**Roy Bauer** · 21 Dec 2008, 02:14 PM

Got this working fine. Thanks for your help, Mike Did it with Screen and Print commands.
Roy

**Roy Bauer** · 21 Dec 2008, 02:14 PM

Jerry, got my routine working with Screen and Print commands, so thank for your help.
Roy

**Roy Bauer** · 21 Dec 2008, 02:15 PM

Fred. Used this method and it works. Thank. Roy

Announcement

Working around old QBasic DEF SEG

Working around old QBasic DEF SEG

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment