String To Elements Protocol

Introduction

Some components may require colours or other types of manipulation. For example, drawing a border on an image component using the extended ASCII drawing characters could require changing the character set to SCO mode, and outputting a character code not normally found on a keyboard.

This document describes a method whereby these codes can be placed in-line in text, so that a function may convert this to an array of element_type and be output to the user.

Details

Escape

\\: \

Default

\x: set all attributes to their default values

E.g. \x

Character Code

\C???

??? = 000..255: the character to display. E.g. \C097 = the 'a' character.

Unicode Character Code

\U????

???? = 0000..FFFF: the hexcode of the character to display. E.g. \U16DD = the 'ᛝ' character.

Character Set

\c?

? = x: default character set (currently US ASCII)
? = A: UK
? = B: US ASCII
? = 0: DEC
? = U: SCO

E.g. \c0

Intensity

\i?

? = x: default intensity (currenly normal)
? = >: bold intensity
? = =: normal intensity
? = <: faint intensity

E.g. \i>

Polarity

\p?

? = x: default polarity (currently positive)
? = +: positive polarity
? = -: negative polarity

E.g. \p-

Underlining

\u?

? = x: default underlining (currently off)
? = +: underlining on
? = -: underlining off

E.g. \u+

Colours

16-colours

See http://www.mudpedia.org/wiki/ANSI_colors for exact colours

\[?

? = 0..9: change the foreground colour.

\]?

? = 0..9: change the background colour.

E.g. \[6\]0 (cyan on a black background)

256-colours

See http://www.mudpedia.org/wiki/Xterm_256_colors for exact colour codes. Note that there are three segments: overlap with the original 16 colours (the only place where true black lies), a central coloured section of 216 colours, a greyscale section of 24 colours.

Overlapping Colours

For the overlap with the original 16 colours, use the 16-colour codes above.

Central 216 Colours

\<?R?G?B

?R = 0..5: intensity of red value as foreground
?G = 0..5: intensity of green value as foreground
?B = 0..5: intensity of blue value as foreground To match up to the colour chart, the following conversion is applied:

colour = (?R x 36) + (?G x 6) + (?B) + 16

E.g. \<510: (5 x 36) + (1 x 6) + (0) + 16 = foreground colour 202, a deep orange.

\>?R?G?B

?R = 0..5: intensity of red value as background
?G = 0..5: intensity of green value as background
?B = 0..5: intensity of blue value as background

See above for colour chart meanings.

E.g. \>135: (1 x 36) + (3 x 6) + (5) + 16 = background colour 75, a greeny-blue.

Greyscale Colours

\{?

? = 0..23: grey intensity as foreground

colour = ? + 232

E.g. \\{12: = 12 + 232 = colour 244, a medium grey on the foreground.

\}?

? = 0..23: grey intensity as background