So far in my text mode graphics demonstration, I’ve shown you code that presents a graphical grid, plus the plot() function that “draws” pixels in the grid. These are the basic building blocks you need to do graphics in text mode. The next step is to craft functions that create basic geometric shapes. The most basic of those is the line.
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In text mode graphics, a char buffer serves as the drawing board, allowing you to plot x and y coordinates. Before any plotting takes place, however, you need a proper canvas.
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To output graphics, you need a palette. That is, you need a buffer that’s so many pixels wide and rows high. Create the buffer, draw in the buffer, output the buffer. That’s how graphics works, both in graphics as well as text mode.
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Graphics programming is entirely possible in the C language.
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If it were spelled Klang, then it might be a reference some Klingon character from Star Trek, but it’s not. Clang is one of those program names that’s a contraction. In this instance, it’s a portmanteau of C Language. It’s an über nifty command line compiler.
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As a programmer, always be thinking: What can go wrong? What would be an exception? Where have I made assumptions? You can’t avoid bugs by making such challenges, but you can diminish their possibilities.
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In last week’s Lesson, I presented code that shows one way to wrap incoming streaming text. It’s not the easiest thing. Let me explain how last week’s code attempts to solve the problem.
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Unlike static text, streaming text feeds into a program one character at a time. To wrap that text, you need to know all the basics about wrapping text (covered in this Lesson), but also how to concoct a filter that buffers its output.
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When displaying a long string of text, it’s polite — and expected — for the programmer to wrap the text. Not wrapping the text would split words at the right margin, which irritates human readers to no end.
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Way back in the day, word wrap was fascinating. It was so unique that word processors boasted about it as a feature. I’m serious! That’s because a lot of the primitive (late 1970s and early 1980s) word processing programs did not wrap text at the end of a line. Strange, but true.
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