Blinking

[jpaulino05]

Hi guys that's me again.

Q: How can I make, from inside a command procedure, some text to blink on the screen?

Thks guys.

[Steven Schweda]

It depends on the screen, but most likely:

http://vms.tuwien.ac.at/info/openvms_beginners_faq.html

http://vt100.net/docs/vt100-ug/

A Google search for keywords like "vt100",
"blinking", and "dcl" will probably find more.

[John Gillings]

Assuming an ANSI standard terminal, you can send escape sequences to change the text attributes (bold, reverse, blink etc...)

$ esc[0,7]=27
$ off=esc+"[m"
$ bold=esc+"[1m"
$ rev=esc+"[7m"
$ blink=esc+"[5m"
$ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT blink,"this will blink",off
$ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT bold,"bolded",off
$ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT rev,"reverse",off

You can add them together

$ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT bold,rev,"reverse bold",off

or, if you want to save on output define multiple attributes in one sequence

boldrev=esc+"[1;7m"
boldrevblink=esc+"[1;5;7m"

Warning! Be sure to send the "off" sequence, otherwise all subsequent output will have the last set attribute.

[Paul Beaudoin]

Here is a list of some of the more used esc sequences in .COM format. Hope that helps a bit. (Watch the wrap - all lines start with $)

$!
$ esc[0,8] = 27
$ sdc_off == "''esc'[0m" !all attributes off
$ sdc_bold1 == "''esc'[1m" !bold on
$ sdc_bold0 == "''esc'[22m" !bold off
$ sdc_undl1 == "''esc'[4m" !underline on
$ sdc_undl0 == "''esc'[24m" !underline off
$ sdc_blnk1 == "''esc'[5m" !blinking on
$ sdc_blnk0 == "''esc'[25m" !blinking off
$ sdc_rvrs1 == "''esc'[7m" !reverse video on
$ sdc_rvrs0 == "''esc'[27m" !reverse video off
$ sdc_DECSWL == "''esc'[5m" !single-width, single-height line
$ sdc_DECDWL == "''esc'[6m" !double-width, single-height line
$ sdc_DECDHL0 == "''esc'#3" !double-width, double-height line (top half)
$ sdc_DECDHL1 == "''esc'#4" !double-width, double-height line (bottom half)
$ sdc_DECKPAM == "''esc'=" !application
$ sdc_DECKPNM == "''esc'>" !numeric
$ sdc_RIS == "''esc'c" !hard terminal reset - not recommended
$ sdc_DECALN == "''esc'#8" !screen alignment pattern
$!
$ prompt = sdc_bold1 + nodename + "::" + username + "> " + sdc_bold0
$ set prompt="''prompt'"
$!