Color Codes

Introduction

DragonConsole Color Codes (DCCC) are short, three character codes that the programmer can add to any text sent to the append(String) method of DragonConsole that give control over the color the text displays with. These codes allow for a Rich Text console application and give the programmer the same control over text set to to the DragonConsole as ANSI gives for common terminals.

DCCC Format

The Format for DCCCs is very simple, and it looks like "&FB" where "&" is the colorCodeChar of the DragonConsole, which be default is "&," and "F" is the character that represents the Foreground Color of the text and "B" represents the Background color for the text.

DCCCs are processed and handled the same way ANSI Colors are handled, meaning that once a DCCC Style is set, it remains as the "current" style until changed or until the style is reset. It is important to not this and remember to reset your style when you are doing use it to prevent any unwanted "color overflow."

There are quite a few built in Colors by default, and more can be added easily (explained later). The Built in colors are as follows:

Name          Character     Color Object                        ANSI Code     ANSI Class variable
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Red           r             Color.RED                           1;31          ANSI.INTENSE_RED
 Dark Red      R             Color.RED.darker()                  31 or 41      ANSI.RED
 Green         g             Color.GREEN                         1;32          ANSI.INTENSE_GREEN
 Dark Green    G             Color.GREEN.darker()                32 or 42      ANSI.GREEN
 Yellow        y             Color.YELLOW                        1;33          ANSI.INTENSE_YELLOW
 Dark Yellow   Y             Color.YELLOW.darker()               33 or 43      ANSI.YELLOW
 Blue          l             new Color(66, 66, 255)              1;34          ANSI.INTENSE_BLUE
 Dark Blue     L             new Color(66, 66, 255).darker()     34 or 44      ANSI.BLUE
 Magenta       m             Color.MAGENTA                       1;35          ANSI.INTENSE_MAGENTA
 Dark Magenta  M             Color.MAGENTA.darker()              35 or 45      ANSI.MAGENTA
 Cyan          c             Color.CYAN                          1;36          ANSI.INTENSE_CYAN
 Dark Cyan     C             Color.CYAN.darker()                 36 or 46      ANSI.CYAN
 Gray          x             Color.GRAY.brighter()               37 or 47      ANSI.WHITE
 Dark Gray     X             Color.GRAY                          1;30          ANSI.INTENSE_BLACK
 Black         b             Color.BLACK                         30 or 40      ANSI.BLACK
 White         w             Color.WHITE                         1;37          ANSI.INTENSE_WHITE
 Orange        o             Color.ORANGE                        -             -
 Dark Orange   O             Color.ORANGE.darker()               -             -
 Purple        p             new Color(128, 0, 255)              -             -
 Dark Purple   P             new Color(128, 0, 255).darker()     -             -
 Gold          d             new Color(241, 234, 139)            -             -
 Dark Gold     D             new Color(241, 234, 139).darker()   -             -

• If you remove all the default colors from the DragonConsole but would like to maintain ANSI compatibility (convert between your DCCCs and ANSI codes) you MUST add TextColors to the DragonConsole with these ANSI Color variables. ANSI Codes are matched to DCCCs by Color, not label, to allow for a complete set of user defined DCCCs that can still convert into ANSI codes.

So when building a true DCCC you would choose the Character representing the color of your foreground, and background from the list above. For RED text on a BLACK background you would chose "r" for RED and "b" for BLACK and your DCCC would be "&rb" which you could add to a String like "&rbHello, World" and append() it. With this example, "Hello, World" would print RED with a BLACK background (and in a black console, a BLACK background would appear as the background of the console).

There are two "reserved" characters for DCCCs that have a different functionality other than representing a color and those are "0" (zero) and "-" hyphen.

The "0" (zero) is used as "&00" and it resets the "current" style to whatever the default style is for the DragonConsole. It's wise to tag "&00" at the end of any bulk output to prevent "color overflow" to the next set of output you print unless you wish to continue using the current style.

The "-" (hyphen) is used as a "carry over" character and by that I mean that whichever position you place it in in the DCCC it will carry over the color from the current style. So if the current style is "&rb" (RED text on BLACK background) and I just want to change the foreground color to GRAY ("x") I could use the DCCC "&x-" which would change the foreground from RED ("r") to GRAY ("x") and carry the Background over from the current style. A side note here, the "-" character is valid for both positions (FOREGROUND and BACKGROUND) but using the DCCC "&--" is the same as not using a DCCC at all because it carries the current style over as the new current style.