For those of you already using PuTTY, I have released a modified version (source) which adds a configuration option to return the cursor to the top left after a clear screen (Settings->Terminal->Clear screen homes cursor). TradeWars' ANSI files expect this behavior of DOS' ANSI.SYS which is technically in violation of the ANSI standard. I've attached a screenshot comparing the two versions landing on Terra.


If you don't already use PuTTY and would like to have a go, I've also created an installer package that includes PuTTY, Bitstream Vera Sans Mono (my favorite monospace font), and is pre-configured to connect to my TradeWars server, including all the appropriate appearance settings to make it look right. You can change the settings to log into whichever server you want, or use pageant.exe to give you easy access to multiple configurations.

nice. i recall there was another annoyance with putty, but i can't remember exactly what it was... hmm. oh yeah i think i remember... something about ESC[0m doesn't reset the BRIGHT flag. TW assumes that ESC[0m will reset all flags, not just the color flags. or maybe it applied the BRIGHT flag to background colors too. i can't remember - its been a few years since i tried putty.

did you submit your new feature to the putty project so that future 'official' versions can have the option? then again, putty may be a dead project...

Oh yeah, I did notice that when the foreground is bold putty makes the background bold too. Didn't bug me nearly as much as the other problem so i guess it slipped my mind. It shouldn't be too hard to fix now that I know where to look.



Sure did.



Edit: on second look, i think the problem with bold backgrounds was caused by the "Terminal/Enable blinking text" setting being turned off. It will switch between blinking or bold bg depending on that setting.

cool. so did you resolve the bright background issue with the 'enable blinking text' setting? at first blush this isn't very intuitive.

It's actually pretty conventional behavior. I remember the old AcidDraw used to give you the option of switching between blinking foreground or bold background, and I seem to remember some other terminal program working like that as well. I suppose the option itself could be worded a bit more intuitively, but I don't know if that really warrants another patch