Re: Screen management in C

On 28/12/2024 00:32, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

On 12/27/2024 3:54 PM, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:

On Fri, 2024-12-27 at 14:34 -0500, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

This has been discussed previously here:
>
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.vms/c/ufBEqvGdglU
>
That discussion has pointers to various examples,

>
In general VMS Pascal/VMS Basic code should be maybe 25% shorter
than equivalent C code. But with a descriptor centric API like
SMG$ then it may be more like 40% shorter.
>
One could make a nice wrapper in C++ encapsulating the context
and convert between stl::string / C char array and descriptors.
>
But then a full screen VT UI is a concept that has been obsolete
for 30 years, so maybe there is little point.

>
People are still writing apps using the console.

 There is still a need to write command line tools. Mostly
for system administrators and developers, but still there.
 But full screen VT UI applications? I doubt many of those
get written today. Whether custom code using SMG$ or one
of TDMS/FMS/DECForms. The end users expectations for UI
has changed. GUI or Web.
 Arne
 

In the mid naughties I used SMG to provide a better UI for HHTs on the shop floor - using a terminal emulator on the HHTs
Far better than the earlier implementation.
This was in Basic, where I wrote a couple of functions to front end it, then called the SMG routines.
Went down well on the shop floor
--
Chris