Terminal Control

Terminal control codes for screen manipulation and cursor movement

Terminal control codes send ANSI escape sequences for screen manipulation. They require an ANSI-capable terminal (most modern terminals support these).

Screen & Color

Code	Description
`\\|CL`	Clear the screen
`\\|CD`	Reset color to default (ANSI reset)
`\\|CR`	Carriage return + line feed (new line)
`\\|BS`	Destructive backspace

Cursor Movement

Code	Description
`[X##`	Move cursor to column `##`
`[Y##`	Move cursor to row `##`
`[A##`	Move cursor up `##` rows
`[B##`	Move cursor down `##` rows
`[C##`	Move cursor forward `##` columns
`[D##`	Move cursor back `##` columns
`[K`	Clear from cursor to end of line
`[0`	Hide cursor
`[1`	Show cursor
`[<`	Move cursor to beginning of line (col 1)
`[>`	Move cursor to end of line (last column)
`[H`	Move cursor to center of line

Note: ## is always two digits. To move to column 5, use [X05.

Info: Anywhere a cursor code expects ##, you can substitute an |XY info code that resolves to a number. For example, |[X|TC moves the cursor to the center column, and |[C|TH moves forward by half the screen width. See terminal geometry codes for useful numeric codes.

The |[<, |[>, and |[H codes use the user’s terminal width to determine the target column. If the width is unset, 80 columns is assumed. |[H uses (width + 1) / 2 — the same formula as the |TC info code.

Save & Restore

Code	Description
`\\|SA`	Save cursor position and attributes
`\\|RA`	Restore cursor position and attributes
`\\|SS`	Save entire screen
`\\|RS`	Restore entire screen

Display File Embedding

Code	Description
`\\|DF{path}`	Display a `.bbs`/`.ans` file or run a MEX script inline

The |DF{path} code embeds a display file (or MEX script) directly into a language string or prompt. When the MCI engine encounters this code, it outputs any preceding text, then calls the display-file subsystem for the given path, and finally continues with any text that follows.

Display files — the path is resolved the same way as a menu Display_File command: extensions (.bbs, .ans) are tried automatically and the file contents are rendered with full MCI processing.
MEX scripts — prefix the path with : to invoke a MEX script instead, e.g. |DF{:my_script}.
If no closing } is found, the | is emitted as a literal character.

|DF{display/screens/welcome}       show welcome.bbs / welcome.ans
|DF{:login_script}                 run login_script.mex
|14Header |DF{display/hdr/bar}|14 Footer   embed a file between text

Note: |DF{path} is handled at the output layer, before MCI expansion of the surrounding text. It cannot be used as a value for format operators ($R, $C, etc.) — it is a side-effect code, not a value producer.

Example

|CL|14Welcome!|CR|CR[X10|11This text starts at column 10.

Clears the screen, prints “Welcome!” in yellow, moves down two lines, positions the cursor at column 10, then prints in light cyan.

Maximus BBS

Documentation for Maximus BBS — Next Generation