Write more than 40 characters to TPDISPLAY?

Hi,

does anyone know how to get the TPDISPLAY in anything but 40x9 (col x row) from Karel?

Using shift+disp->5 Single wide it would seem there is something like 80 cols, and about 20 rows, but any text will be cut at 40 cols and there are still only 9 lines max on the screen.

Browsing files with select does use the entire screen, so there must be some way to get this to work?

I've tried using the Special ASCII Character Codes from the Karel manual, but that doesn't seem to be it.

Anyone?

Ok, so just answering my own question: this is possible, but it requires quite a bit more than just writing some special character codes to the TPDISPLAY.

I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it, but just to document what works for me right now:
[list type=decimal]

• create a new screen, or reuse an existing one (DEF_SCREEN, ACT_SCREEN)

• create two new windows: one for the title, and one for the window 'body'. This is where it is possible to create windows larger than the default 40x9, say 80x20. Larger window sizes only work correctly when the TP is in Single Wide mode though (DEF_WINDOW)

• in case you reuse an existing screen, detach some of the default windows. For the User Menu window (which is on screen T_SC), detach windows t_fu, t_pr and t_fk (DET_WINDOW)

• now attach your own windows to your screen, specifying the correct location: as far as I've been able to tell, the title window should go at [1, 1] (row, col), and the body window at [2, 1]

• now open file descriptors on both windows, using 'WD:' as the device, and the name you gave the windows in step 2

[/list]
The file descriptors can now be used as any other windows, so WRITE and READ should work like they do with for instance the TPDISPLAY window.

Be sure to install an ABORT handler though, as detached windows aren't reattached at program exit, leaving you with an empty user menu if you don't reattach them yourself.

Also, if you've reused the T_SC window, you should be able to navigate back to it using the User Menu menu entry. If you've created your own screen, you should probably link to it from some custom menu entry.

See Table 7.10.1 (USER Menu on the Teach Pendant) and example B.12 (Displaying a list from a dictionary file) in the Karel reference manual (rev.C) for some additional info.