Computer Graphics in DOS

We know DOS primarily as a text-mode operating system. You turn on your DOS VM and it logs you into a command prompt. But DOS also allows for some pretty neat 8-bit graphics, which can add flavor to the sometimes dry and boring CLI. In this article I will be exploring the many aspects of …

Making Text Files Colorful – With a Hex Editor

Hello, friends. In this tutorial I will be sharing a neat hack that you can use to add colors and other styles to a plain text file. This means that when you view the file with cat, the text will be color-coded. We accomplish this using ANSI escape sequences, a text editor, and a hex …

Drawing State Diagrams in SVG

SVG is ideal for a lot of drawing applications that are vector-oriented in nature. Specifically it's very good for drawing diagrams and charts. A diagram drawn in SVG will take up far less space on the hard drive than one drawn in a raster graphics editor like GIMP, and it will also be far easier …

Hacking Image Files – With a Hex Editor

So recently I've been doing some SEO research for my site. This research basically consists of searching for my own pages on Google to see what's been indexed and how the pages rank. One problem that I want to solve is Google's penalizing of duplicate or old content. In the case of images, if I …

Marketable Skills (Random X11 Post)

It's weird. I've known how to code for more than half my life - about 15 years now, yet I haven't gotten to the point where my skills are actually marketable. I've learned a hell of a lot of theory - how to design algorithms, how to analyze and optimize them, and also a lot …

More QBASIC: Color Tables, Font Files, and Sprite Animation

Just another update on my continuing progress with QBASIC. I've moved past trivial programs now and am now doing some more practical graphics programming, getting closer to something that I could turn into a neat MS-DOS game. I learned several new programming constructs, including the RESTORE function, which allows you to reuse data declared by …