Thread: print onto screen only in a designated area?

I've seen the command before but I can't remember what it is. I would like to be able to print onto the screen data but only in a certain area. For example, on a window console that has 25 lines, I want to only print on lines 15 through 25 (since whenever you do a printf, it prints at the bottom and scroll things up) and leave 1 through 14 blank. So I would like to see that when the lines reach 15, the next printf prints and the words on line 15 would disappear when everything scrolls up.

The catch is, I would like to be able to switch the printing area at any given time. Sort of like a toggle between top half and bottom half.

What I'm trying to do is designate the bottom half of the screen as an informational display that scrolls up with any new information. The top half would be sort of like a map.

If I can generate a function that changes the printing area at any time while leaving the other printing area untouched, that would be great.

If you're on Windows, you can use it's API, for things like SetConsoleCursorPosition(). The Borland compiler has more sophisticated tools you can use for this, and I would recommend them. This is an example of the Turbo C (Borland) window() function:

Code:

/*
  window   Defines active text-mode window.

 Syntax:
   void window(int left, int top, int right, int bottom);

The top left corner of the screen is (1,1).

 Prototype in:
 conio.h

 Remarks:
window defines a text window onscreen. If the
coordinates are in any way invalid, the call
to window is ignored.

   left and top are the screen coordinates
   of the upper left corner of the window.

   right and bottom are the screen
   coordinates of the lower right corner.

   The minimum size of the text window is one
   column by one line. The default window is
   full screen, with these coordinates:

   80-column mode:    1,1,80,25
   40-column mode:    1,1,40,25

 Return Value: None.

 Portability:
window works with IBM PCs and compatibles only.

A corresponding function exists in Turbo
Pascal.

 See Also:
  clreol    delline        gotoxy     puttext
  clrscr    gettextinfo    insline   textmode
*/
 Example:
 #include <conio.h>

 int main(void)
 {

    window(10,10,40,11);
    textcolor(BLACK);
    textbackground(WHITE);
    cprintf("This is a test\r\n");

    return 0;
 }

Turbo C is free, but somewhat limited by it's 16 bit DOS roots. Works great in WindowsXP, but won't work at all in Windows 7 without a virtual software install like VMWare, to give it the 16 bit environment it needs. Google Borland legacy languages for d/l sites.

As you can see, I still use turbo C, precisely for functions like this.