ANSI_notation

The ANSI notation is a bit like the markdown of the ANSI strings.

ANSI colors are nice but they come with some problems

• it depends on a library, without it your AS3 code will break.
• it is daunting, not practical and repetitive to use colorize() in the middle of your regular strings.
• it will not work under Windows.

To remedy all those little problems we came with an "ANSI notation" which look like that "Hello World「Y!* 」";

The idea is to allow you to implement a toANSIString() method to your classes without having a hard dependency on the ansilib.

It works like that, with "Hello World「Y!* 」", is a notation that basically says "(regular string)「ANSI code」", or apply this "sequence of ANSI code" to the preceding "string sequence".

The ANSI code sequences are contained within 「 and 」, and inside those separators, one character is equivalent to an ANSI escape code: k for colors.black, ! for controls.bold, etc.

Here the mapping of those characters

character	ANSI escape code
「	begin separator
」	end separator
!	controls.bold
_	controls.underline
*	controls.flash
i	controls.invert
?	controls.conceal
" "	ignoreSpace = false
k	colors.black
r	colors.red
g	colors.green
y	colors.yellow
b	colors.blue
m	colors.magenta
c	colors.cyan
w	colors.white
K	colors.brightBlack
R	colors.brightRed
G	colors.brightGreen
Y	colors.brightYellow
B	colors.brightBlue
M	colors.brightMagenta
C	colors.brightCyan
W	colors.brightWhite
0	backgrounds.black
1	backgrounds.red
2	backgrounds.green
3	backgrounds.yellow
4	backgrounds.blue
5	backgrounds.magenta
6	backgrounds.cyan
7	backgrounds.white

Code example

#!/usr/bin/as3shebang --

import shell.*;

var ansilib:* = Domain.currentDomain.load( "ansilib.abc" );
trace( ansilib + " loaded" );

import encoding.ansi.*;

var hello:* = new AnsiString( "hello world「Y!* 」" );
trace( hello );

var foobar:* = new AnsiString( "Hello World" );
    foobar.altLetter( "b", "w" );
trace( foobar );

var barfoo:* = new AnsiString( "hello world" );
    barfoo.altWord( "G", "R" );
trace( barfoo );

var logo:String = "";
    logo += "\n";
    logo += "           █                                                                       \n";
    logo += "      █████              █    ██                █     █              ██      █     \n";
    logo += "      ██ ██     █       ██ ███████   ██  █              █  █     ██                \n";
    logo += "   █ ██   ██  █████  █████ ███████  ██████   █  ████  ██████ █  ████ ██   ████     \n";
    logo += "    ███   █  ██  ██ ██ ███    █    ██  ███  █████  █  █   ██ ████    █ ████  ██    \n";
    logo += "    ███████ ███████ █   ██    █    ██   ██ ██ ███  ████   ██  ██     █  ██    █    \n";
    logo += "     ████   ████    █   ██    █    ██   ██ ██  █   ████   ██  ██     █  ██ █  ██   \n";
    logo += "     ██ ███  ████ █ ██████    ██   ███████ ██  █ █ ██ ██████   █     █  ██    ██   \n";
    logo += "      █  ██   ████   █████ █  ██    ████ █  █  █   ██  ███ █   █   █ █        ██   \n";
    logo += "        █                                                                          ";

var redtamarin:* = new AnsiString( logo );
    redtamarin.altLine( "M", "C" );
trace( redtamarin );


var logo2:String = "";
    logo2 += "\n";
    logo2 += "           █「R 」                                                                       \n";
    logo2 += "      █████              █「R 」    ██                █     █              ██      █     「Y 」\n";
    logo2 += "      ██ ██     █       ██「R 」 ███████   ██  █              █  █     ██                「y 」\n";
    logo2 += "   █ ██   ██  █████  █████「R 」 ███████  ██████   █  ████  ██████ █  ████ ██   ████     「Y 」\n";
    logo2 += "    ███   █  ██  ██ ██ ███「R 」    █    ██  ███  █████  █  █   ██ ████    █ ████  ██    「y 」\n";
    logo2 += "    ███████ ███████ █   ██「R 」    █    ██   ██ ██ ███  ████   ██  ██     █  ██    █    「Y 」\n";
    logo2 += "     ████   ████    █   ██「R 」    █    ██   ██ ██  █   ████   ██  ██     █  ██ █  ██   「y 」\n";
    logo2 += "     ██ ███  ████ █ ██████「R 」    ██   ███████ ██  █ █ ██ ██████   █     █  ██    ██   「Y 」\n";
    logo2 += "      █  ██   ████   █████ █「R 」  ██    ████ █  █  █   ██  ███ █   █   █ █        ██   「y 」\n";
    logo2 += "        █「R 」                                                                             ";

var ansi_logo2:* = new AnsiString( logo2 );
trace( ansi_logo2 );

var message:String = "";
    message += "Mission Statement「W!_ 」\n";
    message += "To support the use of the 「K 」AS3 language「Y! 」 for 「K 」cross-platform「R 」 command-line「M 」 executable「G 」,「K 」\n";
    message += "as 「K 」single exe「r_ 」 either for the「K 」 desktop「G7i」 or「Ki」 the「K 」 server「R7i」,「K 」\n";
    message += "as 「K 」scripts「b* 」 for 「K 」automation「y_」,「K 」\n";
    message += "as 「K 」tools「B7!i 」 for the 「K 」Flash Platform「W!1 」 community「W!」.「K 」\n";
trace( new AnsiString( message ) );

will gives the following output