ASCII Codes in Batch files

Random Question:

I need to output some stuff from a batch file, and need to put a carriage return in there, but keeping it all on one line in the batch. I know its ASCII 13, but how to I phrase that so DOS will understand?


Thanks

add the following to your c:\config.sys file

device = c:\winnt\system32\ansi.sys

the path to ansi.sys will probably be different on your system. i have not tried using that when running in a dos shell inside recent versions of windows (2k and above) but it probably works. on just straight DOS 6.22 or in windows 3.11 it works fine.

ansi.sys lets you do interesting things when outputting text by embedding special commands in the text which tells the cursor to go to specific places on the screen, the colour of text, all sorts of things.

do a google and you will find pages which list the code you want. http://www.google.com/search?q=ansi+codes&sourceid=opera&num=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 look for something which says "move cursor down one line" or something similar. you could also just find out how to get it to output an ascii character and that will work too, although using that technique you may need carriage return (ascii 13) AND line-feed (ascii 10). i can't remember. experiment.

you will have to find a text editor which lets you put in the 'esc' character (ascii 27 i believe) because that character is used to indicate that special ansi control codes follows instead of just text. there used to be a trick you could do in the edit.com program that came with DOS, but i can't remember the key combination now it's been too long.

thanks for the trip down memory lane