= Ciolib Manual

== Introduction

Ciolib originated as a FreeBSD/Linux implementation of the Borland conio
library for use by the Synchronet User InterFaCe library (UIFC).  Since
then, it has grown more complete by being used to port other software
that was originally implemented using Borland C.

The use of ciolib in SyncTERM however, kicked off an explosion in
capabilities, and SyncTERM has been the primary driver of ciolib
development ever since.  Graphics, multiple font, TruColor, window
scaling and more have been added to ciolib to extend SyncTERM.
In addition, the ANSI parsing and displaying code CTerm is part of
ciolib, and not SyncTERM.

== Output Modes

An output mode specifies the manner in which ciolib displays the content
to the user. There are twelve ciolib output modes that can be broadly
grouped into two categories:

	Text Output Modes::
	These modes use a text based library or interface to display
	character cells and attributes.  These modes are incapable of
	graphics.
	
		Curses Modes:::
		In one of the curses modes, the curses (or ncurses if
		available) API provided by the OS is used for output.
		This means it requires the TERM variable be set
		appropriately, and needs to run inside of another
		terminal emulator such as XTerm or Kitty.  There are
		three curses modes.
		
			Curses::::
			This uses the wide char curses API and supports
			unicode input and output, translating as needed.
			This provides the highest quality in almost all
			terminals.
			
			Curses IBM::::
			When in this mode, ciolib assumes that any
			characters displayed on the screen will be in IBM
			codepage 437, and translates to and from that as
			appropriate. This mode can work well inside of
			a CP437 BBS connection, but makes many
			assumptions that are suspect.
			
			Curses ASCII::::
			In this mode, output is restricted to the ASCII
			character set, and everything is translated to
			that. This is the least capable curses mode.

		ANSI Mode:::
		Ciolib will output ANSI control sequences on stdout in
		this mode.  In general, the sequences used are in line
		with "ANSI-BBS".  This is similar to curses mode, except
		the TERM variable has no impact, and all characteristics
		of the terminal emulator used for display are simply
		assumed. This is the best mode to use from inside a BBS
		connection.

		Windows Conio:::
		Only available on Windows, this uses the old Windows NT
		console API to output text.  Newer versions of Windows
		have changed this API considerably, so until ciolib is
		updated to support the new console, this is of limited
		usefulness.

	Graphical Modes::
	In graphical modes, ciolib controls every pixel that is displayed.
	As a result of this, every feature of ciolib is available to
	every graphical mode. The main reasons to choose one over another
	is portability and OS.
+
Graphical modes usually also have a fullscreen variant.
	
		SDL Mode:::
		SDL mode is the most portable of the modes as it uses
		libsdl, a library designed for writing cross-platform
		games.  SDL supports many more platforms than ciolib
		does, and is usually the first graphical mode supported
		on a new platform.
+
Unfortunately, SDL mode tends to be more complex and
usually somewhat slower or more CPU intensive than other
modes, so is usually only used as a fallback.

		X mode:::
		This uses libX11 to communicate with an X server.
		Historically, the GUI for most \*nix systems were
		provided via an X server.  While Linux
		distributions are moving to Wayland, evne Wayland still
		support libX11 applications.

		GDI mode:::
		This directly uses the Win32 Graphics Display Interface
		(GDI) API.

== Text Modes

Ciolib operates in exactly one text mode.  This is
distinct from the Text Output Mode mentioned above.  Internally, a text
mode is defined via fourteen values:

Mode Number::
A unique ID for each mode. Many of these were defined by Borland, but
the list has been extended by various parties over the years.

Palette::
The palette is a mapping of attribute values to TruColor RGB values. For
historical DOS modes, this defines the standard sixteen colours (or
up to three intensities for monchrome modes).  For other modes such as
the Commodore 64 and Atari modes, the palette is very different.

Columns::
The number of columns on the display.

Rows::
The number of rows on the display.

Cursor Start::
The pixel row number the default cursor starts on.  DOS modes tend to use
a two pixel high underline cursor, while Commodore uses a full block
cursor.

Cursor End::
The pixel row number the default cursor ends on.

Character Height::
The height of a single cell on the display. This indirectly sets the
allowed fonts, since only fonts with the specified height can be used.

Character Width::
The width of a character cell. In all except one mode, this is 8.
However, in the VGA80X25 mode, this is 9.  When this is 9, an
8 pixel wide font may still be used if the `VIDMODES_FLAG_EXPAND` flag
is set.

Default Attribute::
The attribute used when a screen is initialized.  Light Gray on Black
for DOS modes, but varies for other modes.

Flags::
Flags can be set to control on/off behaviours in a mode.  There are
currently two flags that can be set
	CIOLIB_VIDEO_EXPAND:::
	This flag is used to add an extra pixel to the right side of each
	character cell that is not present in the font data.

	CIOLIB_VIDEO_LINE_GRAPHICS_EXPAND:::
	An algorithm from IBM graphics cards is used to fill in an extra pixel column.
	This makes line drawing characters connect across the space,
	but leaves a single pixel gap between block drawing characters.

Aspect Ratio Width::
See next item.

Aspect Ratio Height::
Aspect Ratio Height and Aspect Ratio Width controls the aspect ratio the
mode is scaled to. Most historical text modes did not use square pixels,
but ciolib assumes that its output does use square pixels. It's simplest
to describe these old modes using the aspect ratio of the display and
the pixel resolution.  Historical display were almost universally 4:3
aspect ratio. The Commodore 64 however used large borders on the sides,
and the aspect ratio is actually 6:5.  There is a small number of
additional modes that use aspect ratios with square pixels.  These are:

	ST132X37_16_9:::
	This is a 132x37 mode with square pixels and a 16:9 aspect ratio.

	ST132X37_5_4:::
	This is a 132x52 mode with square pixels and a 5:4 aspect ratio.

	LCD80X25:::
	This is an 80X25 mode with square pixels and an 8:5 aspect ratio.
	This mode was added to provide a way of avoiding scaling and the
	resulting "blurriness".

X Resolution::
The width in pixels of the display.

Y Resolution::
The height in pixels of the display.

There is a custom mode defined where the values can be modified by the
program to create exactly the desired mode.

== Fonts

There are a large number of built in fonts that ciolib supports. Most
are codepage fonts, but there is also Commodore, Atari, and Amiga fonts
included in the default set.  Not all builtin fonts are available in
every size.  The following table summarizes the available fonts.

[%autowidth,cols="1,^2,^3,^4,5"]
|===
|Name |8x16 |8x12 |8x8 |Character Set

|Codepage 437 English
|√
|√
|√
|CP437

|Codepage 1251 Cyrillic, (swiss)
|√
|
|
|CP1251

|Russian koi8-r
|√
|√
|√
|KOI8_R

|ISO-8859-2 Central European
|√
|√
|√
|ISO_8859_2

|ISO-8859-4 Baltic wide (VGA 9bit mapped)
|√
|
|
|ISO_8859_4

|Codepage 866 (c) Russian
|√
|
|
|CP866M

|ISO-8859-9 Turkish
|√
|
|
|ISO_8859_9

|haik8 codepage (use only with armscii8 screenmap)
|√
|√
|√
|HAIK8

|ISO-8859-8 Hebrew
|√
|√
|√
|ISO_8859_8

|Ukrainian font koi8-u
|√
|√
|√
|KOI8_U

|ISO-8859-15 West European, (thin)
|√
|
|
|ISO_8859_15

|ISO-8859-4 Baltic (VGA 9bit mapped)
|√
|√
|√
|ISO_8859_4

|Russian koi8-r (b)
|√
|
|
|KOI8_R

|ISO-8859-4 Baltic wide
|√
|
|
|ISO_8859_4

|ISO-8859-5 Cyrillic
|√
|√
|√
|ISO_8859_5

|ARMSCII-8 Character set
|√
|√
|√
|ARMSCII8

|ISO-8859-15 West European
|√
|√
|√
|ISO_8859_15

|Codepage 850 Multilingual Latin I, (thin)
|√
|
|√
|CP850

|Codepage 850 Multilingual Latin I
|√
|√
|√
|CP850

|Codepage 865 Norwegian, (thin)
|√
|
|√
|CP865

|Codepage 1251 Cyrillic
|√
|√
|√
|CP1251

|ISO-8859-7 Greek
|√
|√
|√
|ISO_8859_7

|Russian koi8-r (c)
|√
|
|
|KOI8_R

|ISO-8859-4 Baltic
|√
|√
|√
|ISO_8859_4

|ISO-8859-1 West European
|√
|√
|√
|ISO_8859_1

|Codepage 866 Russian
|√
|√
|√
|CP866M2

|Codepage 437 English, (thin)
|√
|
|√
|CP437

|Codepage 866 (b) Russian
|√
|
|
|CP866M2

|Codepage 865 Norwegian
|√
|√
|√
|CP865

|Ukrainian font cp866u
|√
|√
|√
|CP866U

|ISO-8859-1 West European, (thin)
|√
|
|
|ISO_8859_1

|Codepage 1131 Belarusian, (swiss)
|√
|
|
|CP1131

|Commodore 64 (UPPER)
|√
|
|√
|PETSCIIU

|Commodore 64 (Lower)
|√
|
|√
|PETSCIIL

|Commodore 128 (UPPER)
|√
|
|√
|PETSCIIU

|Commodore 128 (Lower)
|√
|
|√
|PETSCIIL

|Atari
|√
|
|√
|ATASCII

|P0T NOoDLE (Amiga)
|√
|√
|
|ISO_8859_1

|mO'sOul (Amiga)
|√
|
|√
|ISO_8859_1

|MicroKnight Plus (Amiga)
|√
|
|
|ISO_8859_1

|Topaz Plus (Amiga)
|√
|
|
|ISO_8859_1

|MicroKnight (Amiga)
|√
|
|√
|ISO_8859_1

|Topaz (Amiga)
|√
|√
|
|ISO_8859_1

|Prestel
|√
|
|
|ISO_8859_1
|===
