X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: f996b,f5ae517abda45452
X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1993-11-08 17:35:16 PST
Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art
Path: 
 gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!apple.com!amd!amdahl!netcomsv!netcom.com!msb
From: msb@netcom.com (Mark S. Bilk)
Subject: Re: Windows in ASCII
Message-ID: <msbCG74A6.LE2@netcom.com>
Organization: Cosmic Church of the Orgone Goddess
References: <1993Nov5.083938.17756@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
 <1993Nov5.100152.616@crosfield.co.uk> <1993Nov7.224515.29803@cs.wisc.edu>
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 23:08:26 GMT
Lines: 35

In article <1993Nov7.224515.29803@cs.wisc.edu> so@brownie.cs.wisc.edu (Bryan S. So) writes:

>  I was interested in these packages for DOS you mentioned a 
>  while ago.  I have examined most of the public domain ones
>  and many commercial products.  
>
>  ALL of them lack one or both of the following features that I
>  consider essential:
>
>  . writing characters to a background window without first
>    popping that window up to the front.
>
>    - essential for multitasking applications.
>
>  . moving a window partly off the screen.  for example, I'll
>    send this command: window_move_right(window4, 30), which 
>    moves a window to the right 30 units.  If the right border
>    of that window is currently less than 30 units from the
>    edge of the screen, I'd like it to go partly off right 
>    part of the screen.  
>
>    - essential for virtual desktop applications.
>
>  That was about a year ago, and I am not confident there is
>  any to date.

DesqView (from Quarterdeck) can't move windows partially off
screen, at least not in the version (2.42) they were selling a
year or two ago.  However, it is ASCII oriented, easy to program
for, and very powerful.  I wrote a "supervisor" program to
operate Lotus 1-2-3 (in concert with another program) under
Desqview, by sending keystrokes to it and reading its screen,
even though 1-2-3 was not Desqview-aware.