Go to specific row and column

ruby-talk
1

Hi,

I'm new to Ruby and programming and I know I'm getting a
little ahead of myself, but I'm having trouble finding the
command that sends you to a specific row and column on a
monitor before writing something. Also any related
commands.

I have the pickaxe book if the commands are in there. I
know about printf and sprintf, but I do not think that is
what I am looking for.

Thanks in advance,

Don

2

That kind of functionality is usually provided by an external library
such as ncurses. There is a ruby/ncurses binding available at
http://ncurses-ruby.berlios.de/

Farrel

···

On 14/08/06, don <donsdx@gmailspambad.invalid> wrote:

Hi,

I'm new to Ruby and programming and I know I'm getting a
little ahead of myself, but I'm having trouble finding the
command that sends you to a specific row and column on a
monitor before writing something. Also any related
commands.

I have the pickaxe book if the commands are in there. I
know about printf and sprintf, but I do not think that is
what I am looking for.

Thanks in advance,

Don

3

Farrel, thanks for the fast response.

So, are you saying there is not a "go to col 23, row 19"
type command in Ruby unless I install something else on my
linux system?

Don

···

On 2006-08-14, Farrel Lifson wrote:

On 14/08/06, don <donsdx@gmailspambad.invalid> wrote:

Hi,

I'm new to Ruby and programming and I know I'm getting a
little ahead of myself, but I'm having trouble finding the
command that sends you to a specific row and column on a
monitor before writing something. Also any related
commands.

I have the pickaxe book if the commands are in there. I
know about printf and sprintf, but I do not think that is
what I am looking for.

Thanks in advance,

Don

That kind of functionality is usually provided by an external library
such as ncurses. There is a ruby/ncurses binding available at
http://ncurses-ruby.berlios.de/

Farrel

4

. . . or a different language, like Logo.

···

On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 09:14:52PM +0900, Farrel Lifson wrote:

On 14/08/06, don <donsdx@gmailspambad.invalid> wrote:
>
>I'm new to Ruby and programming and I know I'm getting a
>little ahead of myself, but I'm having trouble finding the
>command that sends you to a specific row and column on a
>monitor before writing something. Also any related
>commands.
>
>I have the pickaxe book if the commands are in there. I
>know about printf and sprintf, but I do not think that is
>what I am looking for.
>
That kind of functionality is usually provided by an external library
such as ncurses. There is a ruby/ncurses binding available at
http://ncurses-ruby.berlios.de/

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
"It's just incredible that a trillion-synapse computer could actually
spend Saturday afternoon watching a football game." - Marvin Minsky

5

don wrote:

That kind of functionality is usually provided by an external library
such as ncurses. There is a ruby/ncurses binding available at
http://ncurses-ruby.berlios.de/

Farrel

Farrel, thanks for the fast response.

So, are you saying there is not a "go to col 23, row 19"
type command in Ruby unless I install something else on my
linux system?

In general this concept of external libs is the de facto and for a good reason. For common things that can be utilized from many sources it's good to put in an external libs. In this case you have a C ncurses library and a ruby wrapper that interfaces with the base library.

6

Hi Cliff.

I wasn't commenting on the goodness or badness. I'd just
hoped there was a command I could use in my beginners
program.

Don

···

On 2006-08-14, Cliff Cyphers wrote:

don wrote:

That kind of functionality is usually provided by an external library
such as ncurses. There is a ruby/ncurses binding available at
http://ncurses-ruby.berlios.de/

Farrel

Farrel, thanks for the fast response.

So, are you saying there is not a "go to col 23, row 19"
type command in Ruby unless I install something else on my
linux system?

In general this concept of external libs is the de facto and for a good
reason. For common things that can be utilized from many sources it's
good to put in an external libs. In this case you have a C ncurses
library and a ruby wrapper that interfaces with the base library.

7

don wrote:

Hi Cliff.

I wasn't commenting on the goodness or badness. I'd just
hoped there was a command I could use in my beginners
program.

There is curses in the standard library. So this little script should
work without installing anything extra:

···

---------------------------------------------
#! /usr/bin/ruby

require 'curses'

Curses.init_screen
s = Curses.stdscr
10.times do |i|
  s.setpos(i, i)
  s << "toto"
  Curses.refresh
  sleep(1)
end
Curses.close_screen
--------------------------------------------

The documentation is poor, but it doesn't take a lot of poking around
to figure out how it works. For documentation, see
http://www.ruby-doc.org, in the standard library, curses.

Hope this help,
Guillaume.

Don

8

Curses is among the standard libraries, (loaded with require 'curses')
but since most types of programs (e.g. web programs, GUI programs,
simple scripts) don't need the functionality of "go to col 23, row
19", it doesn't make sense to put it in as a language primative.

Learn to love libraries.

--Ken

···

don <donsdx@gmailspambad.invalid> wrote:

On 2006-08-14, Cliff Cyphers wrote:

don wrote:

That kind of functionality is usually provided by an external library
such as ncurses. There is a ruby/ncurses binding available at
http://ncurses-ruby.berlios.de/

Farrel

Farrel, thanks for the fast response.

So, are you saying there is not a "go to col 23, row 19"
type command in Ruby unless I install something else on my
linux system?

In general this concept of external libs is the de facto and for a good
reason. For common things that can be utilized from many sources it's
good to put in an external libs. In this case you have a C ncurses
library and a ruby wrapper that interfaces with the base library.

I wasn't commenting on the goodness or badness. I'd just
hoped there was a command I could use in my beginners
program.

--
Ken Bloom. PhD candidate. Linguistic Cognition Laboratory.
Department of Computer Science. Illinois Institute of Technology.
http://www.iit.edu/~kbloom1/

9

Thanks Guillaume. That is what I was looking for. I'll
play with your code and check out the curses documentation.

Don

···

On 2006-08-15, guillaume.marcais@gmail.com wrote:

don wrote:

Hi Cliff.

I wasn't commenting on the goodness or badness. I'd just
hoped there was a command I could use in my beginners
program.

There is curses in the standard library. So this little script should
work without installing anything extra:

---------------------------------------------
#! /usr/bin/ruby

require 'curses'

Curses.init_screen
s = Curses.stdscr
10.times do |i|
  s.setpos(i, i)
  s << "toto"
  Curses.refresh
  sleep(1)
end
Curses.close_screen
--------------------------------------------

The documentation is poor, but it doesn't take a lot of poking around
to figure out how it works. For documentation, see
http://www.ruby-doc.org, in the standard library, curses.

Hope this help,
Guillaume.

Don

10

don wrote:

That kind of functionality is usually provided by an external library
such as ncurses. There is a ruby/ncurses binding available at
http://ncurses-ruby.berlios.de/

Farrel

Farrel, thanks for the fast response.

So, are you saying there is not a "go to col 23, row 19"
type command in Ruby unless I install something else on my
linux system?

In general this concept of external libs is the de facto and for a good
reason. For common things that can be utilized from many sources it's
good to put in an external libs. In this case you have a C ncurses
library and a ruby wrapper that interfaces with the base library.

I wasn't commenting on the goodness or badness. I'd just
hoped there was a command I could use in my beginners
program.

Curses is among the standard libraries, (loaded with require 'curses')
but since most types of programs (e.g. web programs, GUI programs,
simple scripts) don't need the functionality of "go to col 23, row
19", it doesn't make sense to put it in as a language primative.

Learn to love libraries.

I will, Ken, as soon as I understand what they are. Thanks
for the reply.

Don

···

On 2006-08-15, Ken Bloom wrote:

don <donsdx@gmailspambad.invalid> wrote:

On 2006-08-14, Cliff Cyphers wrote:

--Ken