video unit

The video unit in conjunction with the keyboard unit provide a system-independent way to program interactions with the console, a text terminal. It is part of the FPC’s standard run-time library.

functionality

The provided routines are rather low-level. There is no facility to just print a string at a certain position. Instead, the video unit maintains a buffer of the entire screen. It records every cell’s contents and possibly attributes like colors. The buffer then needs to be written with the updateScreen procedure.

example

Using the following enhancement unit:

unit videoEnhanced;
{$modeSwitch typeHelpers+}
interface
uses
	video;
type
	{$push}
	{$scopedEnums on}
	color = (black := video.black, blue := video.blue, green := video.green,
		cyan := video.cyan, red := video.red, magenta := video.magenta,
		brown := video.brown, lightGray := video.lightGray,
		darkGray := video.darkGray, lightBlue := video.lightBlue,
		lightGreen := video.lightGreen, lightCyan := video.lightCyan,
		lightRed := video.lightRed, lightMagenta := video.lightMagenta,
		yellow := video.yellow, white := video.white);
	{$pop}
	attribute = bitpacked record
			foreground: color;
			background: color.black..color.lightGray;
			blinking: Boolean;
		end;
	cell = packed record
			{$ifDef endian_big}
				display: attribute;
				character: char;
			{$else}
				character: char;
				display: attribute;
			{$endIf}
		end;
	{$if sizeOf(cell) <> sizeOf(tVideoCell)}
		{$fatal wrong cell size}
	{$endIf}
	dimension = 0..16382{$ifNDef CPU16}+16377{$endIf};
	
	bufferHelper = type helper for pVideoBuf
			function getCell(const x, y: dimension): cell;
			procedure setCell(const x, y: dimension; const content: cell);
			property cell[x, y: dimension]: cell
				read getCell write setCell;
		end;

implementation

function bufferHelper.getCell(const x, y: dimension): cell;
type
	cast = cell; // otherwise `cell` means the _property_
begin
	getCell := cast(self^[x + y * screenWidth]);
end;

procedure bufferHelper.setCell(const x, y: dimension; const content: cell);
begin
	self^[x + y * screenWidth] := tVideoCell(content);
end;
end.

The following program displays a yellow D in the fifth column of the fifth row:

program videoDemo(input, output, stdErr);
uses
	video, videoEnhanced;
var
	c: cell;
begin
	initVideo;
	if errorCode <> errOK then
	begin
		halt(errorCode);
	end;
	
	c := default(cell);
	c.character := 'D';
	c.display.foreground := color.yellow;
	videoBuf.cell[4, 4] := c;
	
	updateScreen(false);
	
	readLn;
	doneVideo;
	ClearScreen; // Clean up console upon exit
end.

This demo fails to make range checks. This demo assumes colors are available.

see also

• video unit documentation
• nCurses
• Free Vision
• Forum topic “How to change a character's text and background color in video unit?”
• Forum topic “Video unit and writeln color?”
• Forum topic “Video unit and updating the screen”
• txtVideo unit, a more extensive unit providing convenient routines