What happened with `printf` and its family?

@yurkshirelad Remember, the sprintf statement can also accept the same formatting, so once you have a string of formatted text you can 'output' it any way you want. If I have a text message field on say the arduino cloud, this can be used to fancy it up.

@yurkshirelad

I've used the bash shell to do the same in the past, as long as the escape sequences are supported.

For example:

#!/usr/bin/bash
echo -e '\033[0;33m'Hello

Posted by: @zander

@yurkshirelad Remember, the sprintf statement can also accept the same formatting, so once you have a string of formatted text you can 'output' it any way you want. If I have a text message field on say the arduino cloud, this can be used to fancy it up.

I tend to agree that using a stylesheet as suggested by @yurkshirelad is the better way to approach it... it means less code for you to write in your main code, and allows the web server to automate it all for you.  The possibilities are endless with CSS these days, and you could even make use of fancy CSS stylesheet libraries if you don't want to write it yourself - just look at what BOOTSTRAP is doing 😉

@frogandtoad Yes, that's the thing I was thinking of. I got pulled away from solving that problem by another problem. I will find a 'cheat sheet' somewhere so I can add some colour to my text.

@frogandtoad The problem is where I want to add some 'style' is in the arduino IoT cloud and it's just code, no CSS etc. a simple sprintf variant is all I need. The cloud system is very primitive at the moment, I assume they have a team working on it to bring it into the modern world. I can't even put proper labels on fields yet.

Can you use escape codes to add colour to a web page?

@yurkshirelad I don't know, I assume so. I am not directly working with a web page, wouldn't have a clue. I am simply using the Arduino IoT cloud. It is very basic at the moment but I am hoping escape sequences will cause colour. Right now I am still analyzing and designing, when I write the code I will try some escape sequences and see what happens.

My memory's hazy, I thought the intent was to write to a web page. Just getting confused in my middle age. 😀 

@yurkshirelad No not confused, probably my poor assumption that everyone on herte was familiar with the Arduino IoT cloud that Bill made the video about.The end result is I suppose a web page on my phone but as the coder, I never see anything but regular C code and mostly not even that, it's click and move around little boxes.

Posted by: @yurkshirelad

Can you use escape codes to add colour to a web page?

www.w3.org

@zander

Posted by: @zander

@frogandtoad The problem is where I want to add some 'style' is in the arduino IoT cloud and it's just code, no CSS etc. a simple sprintf variant is all I need. The cloud system is very primitive at the moment, I assume they have a team working on it to bring it into the modern world. I can't even put proper labels on fields yet.

Well, you can still format CSS and embed it directly inline between some style tags or dedicated tags in the head section... preferably an external stylesheet however.

@frogandtoad Thanks for the link, I will see if there is info in there to guide me how to build a C string with colour added. This is a nice to have, not something that will break the project.

@frogandtoad Here is a picture of the start of the sketch generated by the Arduino IoT cloud tool. NO web stuff visible, just C code.

@zander

Posted by: @zander

@frogandtoad Thanks for the link, I will see if there is info in there to guide me how to build a C string with colour added. This is a nice to have, not something that will break the project.

C and C++ can write to stdout for example, which may or may not be attached to a display device.  If however, you can send to some sort of display device, then any language scripting or otherwise can send escape sequences to that device, as long as it supports such standards, which many do and are POSIX compliant as well.

@zander

Posted by: @zander

@frogandtoad Here is a picture of the start of the sketch generated by the Arduino IoT cloud tool. NO web stuff visible, just C code.

Hehe... "the thing"!

I have never used the cloud, and personally don't trust clouds, unless it's my own personal cloud that I have complete control over.  I can only imagine that you must have installed some kind of browser plugin to keep the session alive for communications?  Did you do something like that during installation or browser configuration?