Article: Q26768
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 2.00 2.01 3.00 4.00 4.00b 4.50
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | B_BasicCom | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 26-FEB-1990
For QuickBASIC Versions 2.00, 2.01, and 3.00, it was reported that a
particular POKE statement forces colored text from the PRINT statement
when using SCREEN 1. This method does NOT work in QuickBASIC Versions
4.00, 4.00b, 4.50 [or in Microsoft BASIC Compiler Versions 6.00,
6.00b, or in Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System (PDS)
Version 7.00] due to significant internal changes in how video
graphics are created.
The COLOR statement, not the POKE statement, should be used to change
the color of text.
You need to use SCREEN 0, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, or 13 if you want more than
one color of text displayed at once on the screen. On these screens,
you can invoke the desired COLOR statement followed by a PRINT
statement to get a desired text color. (QuickBASIC Version 4.00 or
later is required to support SCREEN 11, 12, or 13.) Note: The COLOR
statement cannot be invoked in monochrome SCREEN 2 or 11.
Note: In SCREEN 1, the COLOR statement cannot change the foreground
(text) color -- it can only change the background color and the
palette. As a result, for a given background color, you may only have
one color of text on the screen at once in SCREEN 1 in QuickBASIC
4.00, 4.00b, 4.50, in BASIC Compiler 6.00, 6.00b, and in BASIC PDS
7.00. To work around this limitation by using a BIOS interrupt, search
for a separate article with the following words:
INTERRUPT and HEX and 10 and FUNCTION and 9 and COLOR
The following is a code example that shows multiple text colors on the
screen at once in QuickBASIC Versions 2.00, 2.01, or 3.00, but not in
later versions:
'Numbering scheme for colors:
' 0 - black 2 - light magenta
' 1 - light blue 3 - white
SCREEN 1
DEF SEG
POKE &H53, 2 ' numbers 0-3 give colored text
PRINT "HELLO in light magenta"
POKE &H53, 1
PRINT "HELLO in simultaneous light blue"