Hi.

When defining screens using the "screen section" in Cobol,
one can add "foreground-color is n" and "background-color is n".

Now, the numeric parameter n has valid values between 0 and 7.
But our terminal emulator (and the ANSI/VT ESC sequence standard)
has 16 settings. In our emulator (Extra!) they are 0-15.

0="black"
7="white"
15="bright white"

If I try to set the value to 15 I get:

%COBOL-F-SCRCOLVAL, FOREGROUND-COLOR or BACKGROUND-COLOR clause
value must be between 0 and 7 inclusive.

We are looking at options like redefining "colour 7" in Extra!
to be 255,255,255 (pure white) instead of the current 192,192,192
which results in a light grey background.

I'll ask VSI directly also if this restriction can be expanded
to include all colour options as can be seen here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors
but thought I'd just ask if someone have seen this before
and might have some other solution.

Regards,
Jan-Erik.

Den 2021-08-14 kl. 14:43, skrev Jan-Erik Söderholm:
> Hi.
>
> When defining screens using the "screen section" in Cobol,
> one can add "foreground-color is n" and "background-color is n".
>
> Now, the numeric parameter n has valid values between 0 and 7.
> But our terminal emulator (and the ANSI/VT ESC sequence standard)
> has 16 settings. In our emulator (Extra!) they are 0-15.
>
> 0="black"
> 7="white"
> 15="bright white"
>
> If I try to set the value to 15 I get:
>
>
> %COBOL-F-SCRCOLVAL, FOREGROUND-COLOR or BACKGROUND-COLOR clause
>   value must be between 0 and 7 inclusive.
>
> We are looking at options like redefining "colour 7" in Extra!
> to be 255,255,255 (pure white) instead of the current 192,192,192
> which results in a light grey background.
>
> I'll ask VSI directly also if this restriction can be expanded
> to include all colour options as can be seen here:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors
> but thought I'd just ask if someone have seen this before
> and might have some other solution.
>
> Regards,
> Jan-Erik.
>
>

I have added one additional request to VSI. An option in the
"screen section" that simply disables all colour changing
commands from the compiler. Our default colours in the
terminal emulator are OK and do not need any changes.

Something like:

screen section.
01 scrPageHeader blank screen no-color-changes.
02 value "Hello world - Screen section" line 2 column 1.

Or something similar...

On 8/14/2021 10:46 AM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
> Den 2021-08-14 kl. 14:43, skrev Jan-Erik Söderholm:
>> Hi.
>>
>> When defining screens using the "screen section" in Cobol,
>> one can add "foreground-color is n" and "background-color is n".
>>
>> Now, the numeric parameter n has valid values between 0 and 7.
>> But our terminal emulator (and the ANSI/VT ESC sequence standard)
>> has 16 settings. In our emulator (Extra!) they are 0-15.
>>
>> 0="black"
>> 7="white"
>> 15="bright white"
>>
>> If I try to set the value to 15 I get:
>>
>>
>> %COBOL-F-SCRCOLVAL, FOREGROUND-COLOR or BACKGROUND-COLOR clause
>> value must be between 0 and 7 inclusive.
>>
>> We are looking at options like redefining "colour 7" in Extra!
>> to be 255,255,255 (pure white) instead of the current 192,192,192
>> which results in a light grey background.
>>
>> I'll ask VSI directly also if this restriction can be expanded
>> to include all colour options as can be seen here:
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors
>> but thought I'd just ask if someone have seen this before
>> and might have some other solution.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Jan-Erik.
>>
>>
>
> I have added one additional request to VSI. An option in the
> "screen section" that simply disables all colour changing
> commands from the compiler. Our default colours in the
> terminal emulator are OK and do not need any changes.
>
> Something like:
>
> screen section.
> 01 scrPageHeader blank screen no-color-changes.
> 02 value "Hello world - Screen section" line 2 column 1.
>
> Or something similar...
>
>

So what you're saying is that Cobol knows better than you what the
screen colors should be?

Got to wonder how that survived this long ...

--
David Froble Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc. E-Mail: davef@tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
170 Grimplin Road
Vanderbilt, PA 15486

Den 2021-08-14 kl. 18:00, skrev Dave Froble:
> On 8/14/2021 10:46 AM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
>> Den 2021-08-14 kl. 14:43, skrev Jan-Erik Söderholm:
>>> Hi.
>>>
>>> When defining screens using the "screen section" in Cobol,
>>> one can add "foreground-color is n" and "background-color is n".
>>>
>>> Now, the numeric parameter n has valid values between 0 and 7.
>>> But our terminal emulator (and the ANSI/VT ESC sequence standard)
>>> has 16 settings. In our emulator (Extra!) they are 0-15.
>>>
>>> 0="black"
>>> 7="white"
>>> 15="bright white"
>>>
>>> If I try to set the value to 15 I get:
>>>
>>>
>>> %COBOL-F-SCRCOLVAL, FOREGROUND-COLOR or BACKGROUND-COLOR clause
>>>    value must be between 0 and 7 inclusive.
>>>
>>> We are looking at options like redefining "colour 7" in Extra!
>>> to be 255,255,255 (pure white) instead of the current 192,192,192
>>> which results in a light grey background.
>>>
>>> I'll ask VSI directly also if this restriction can be expanded
>>> to include all colour options as can be seen here:
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors
>>> but thought I'd just ask if someone have seen this before
>>> and might have some other solution.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Jan-Erik.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I have added one additional request to VSI. An option in the
>> "screen section" that simply disables all colour changing
>> commands from the compiler. Our default colours in the
>> terminal emulator are OK and do not need any changes.
>>
>> Something like:
>>
>> screen section.
>> 01  scrPageHeader blank screen no-color-changes.
>>     02  value "Hello world - Screen section" line 2 column 1.
>>
>> Or something similar...
>>
>>
>
> So what you're saying is that Cobol knows better than you what the screen
> colors should be?
>
> Got to wonder how that survived this long ...
>

I have no idea how much this feature is used. Not needed if you have
and use FMS, DECforms, TDMS or some other similar form mgm tool.

We use one tool today that was a customer unique tool from DEC Sweden
(the manual has both RSX and VMS sections), but it doesn't support
132 char screens. We do have the Fortran source, but instead of trying
to patch that tool, we look at the "screen section" in Cobol.

It is acually really neat, the only issue right now is the default
colour handling done by the compiler.

On can work around it by not defining a "screen section" and instead
add the row/col options to each DISPLAY statement, but more work
and not as clean in the actual code...

On 8/14/2021 12:00 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 8/14/2021 10:46 AM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
>> Den 2021-08-14 kl. 14:43, skrev Jan-Erik Söderholm:
>>> When defining screens using the "screen section" in Cobol,
>>> one can add "foreground-color is n" and "background-color is n".
>>>
>>> Now, the numeric parameter n has valid values between 0 and 7.
>>> But our terminal emulator (and the ANSI/VT ESC sequence standard)
>>> has 16 settings. In our emulator (Extra!) they are 0-15.
>>>
>>> 0="black"
>>> 7="white"
>>> 15="bright white"
>>>
>>> If I try to set the value to 15 I get:
>>>
>>> %COBOL-F-SCRCOLVAL, FOREGROUND-COLOR or BACKGROUND-COLOR clause
>>>    value must be between 0 and 7 inclusive.
>>>
>>> We are looking at options like redefining "colour 7" in Extra!
>>> to be 255,255,255 (pure white) instead of the current 192,192,192
>>> which results in a light grey background.
>>>
>>> I'll ask VSI directly also if this restriction can be expanded
>>> to include all colour options as can be seen here:
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors
>>> but thought I'd just ask if someone have seen this before
>>> and might have some other solution.
>>
>> I have added one additional request to VSI. An option in the
>> "screen section" that simply disables all colour changing
>> commands from the compiler. Our default colours in the
>> terminal emulator are OK and do not need any changes.
>>
>> Something like:
>>
>> screen section.
>> 01  scrPageHeader blank screen no-color-changes.
>>     02  value "Hello world - Screen section" line 2 column 1.
>>
>> Or something similar...
>
> So what you're saying is that Cobol knows better than you what the
> screen colors should be?
>
> Got to wonder how that survived this long ...

Just note that this is standardized.

<quote>
9.2.7 Color number
Color is one of the attributes that may be specified for screen items.
For a monochrome terminal, the color
attributes are mapped onto other attributes by the implementor.
A color is selected by specifying the corresponding integer that
represents the color number. The colors given in
the table are a rough guide only; the exact shade of color will depend
on the terminal capabilities. For example the
value 6 might be shown as brown, but when HIGHLIGHT is also selected it
might appear as yellow or the value 0
might be shown as black but when HIGHLIGHT is also selected it might
appear as gray.
black
blue
green
cyan
red
magenta
brown/yellow
white
0 1
2 3
4 5
6 7
</quote>

So it should probably be an build option.

Like:

/COLPASS

Color passthrough.

Arne

On 8/14/21 1:51 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 8/14/2021 12:00 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>> On 8/14/2021 10:46 AM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
>>> Den 2021-08-14 kl. 14:43, skrev Jan-Erik Söderholm:
>>>> When defining screens using the "screen section" in Cobol,
>>>> one can add "foreground-color is n" and "background-color is n".
>>>>
>>>> Now, the numeric parameter n has valid values between 0 and 7.
>>>> But our terminal emulator (and the ANSI/VT ESC sequence standard)
>>>> has 16 settings. In our emulator (Extra!) they are 0-15.
>>>>
>>>> 0="black"
>>>> 7="white"
>>>> 15="bright white"
>>>>
>>>> If I try to set the value to 15 I get:
>>>>
>>>> %COBOL-F-SCRCOLVAL, FOREGROUND-COLOR or BACKGROUND-COLOR clause
>>>>    value must be between 0 and 7 inclusive.
>>>>
>>>> We are looking at options like redefining "colour 7" in Extra!
>>>> to be 255,255,255 (pure white) instead of the current 192,192,192
>>>> which results in a light grey background.
>>>>
>>>> I'll ask VSI directly also if this restriction can be expanded
>>>> to include all colour options as can be seen here:
>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors
>>>> but thought I'd just ask if someone have seen this before
>>>> and might have some other solution.
>>>
>>> I have added one additional request to VSI. An option in the
>>> "screen section" that simply disables all colour changing
>>> commands from the compiler. Our default colours in the
>>> terminal emulator are OK and do not need any changes.
>>>
>>> Something like:
>>>
>>> screen section.
>>> 01  scrPageHeader blank screen no-color-changes.
>>>     02  value "Hello world - Screen section" line 2 column 1.
>>>
>>> Or something similar...
>>
>> So what you're saying is that Cobol knows better than you what the
>> screen colors should be?
>>
>> Got to wonder how that survived this long ...
>
> Just note that this is standardized.
>
> <quote>
> 9.2.7 Color number
> Color is one of the attributes that may be specified for screen items.
> For a monochrome terminal, the color
> attributes are mapped onto other attributes by the implementor.
> A color is selected by specifying the corresponding integer that
> represents the color number. The colors given in
> the table are a rough guide only; the exact shade of color will depend
> on the terminal capabilities. For example the
> value 6 might be shown as brown, but when HIGHLIGHT is also selected it
> might appear as yellow or the value 0
> might be shown as black but when HIGHLIGHT is also selected it might
> appear as gray.
> black
> blue
> green
> cyan
> red
> magenta
> brown/yellow
> white
> 0
> 1
> 2
> 3
> 4
> 5
> 6
> 7
> </quote>
>
> So it should probably be an build option.
>
> Like:
>
> /COLPASS
>
> Color passthrough.
>
> Arne

I haven't looked at the VMS COBOL documentation but with GnuCOBOL
I was surprised that the default was not given and that I saw no
option anywhere to set your own default. A trivial thing, but
still interesting.

bill