Subj : Dynamic screen resizing
To   : Kirkman
From : Nightfox
Date : Wed Dec 03 2014 12:51 pm

 > The last few days I've seen a couple oversized ANSI artworks posted on
 > Facebook: one 160 chars wide, and the other 200 chars wide.
 > 
 > That got me thinking. A bigger canvas lets you create more detailed
 > graphics, which sure would be nice to use in BBS interfaces or games. 
It's
 > already possible to do that, I know, but it requires that users 
configure
 > their terminal prior to connecting to the BBS. Not many would do that.
 > 
 > So could there be (or is there) a way for a JS app on the BBS to signal 
to
 > SyncTerm to resize itself to larger dimensions? Like when you play a PC
 > game, and it changes the screen resolution by itself, and then resets 
once
 > you quit.

That's an interesting idea, but the downside is that it would be a proprietary
thing supported by SyncTerm and Synchronet, and other terminal software might
never adopt that standard.  At the very least, it shouldn't break other
terminal programs, but such large ANSIs would look ugly on 
those terminal programs, as you describe.  Also, there are some people who
like to configure old DOS terminal programs in an emulator to be used over
telnet for the nostalgia factor, and those terminals of course are no 
longer being updated.

Unfortunately, the best option is probably to stick with the 80x25 canvas size
for ANSI graphics if you intend to display the art over a terminal connection
and you don't want your users to have to reconfigure their terminal size
before connecting.

Nightfox

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