This page is a quick explanation of what is necessary to make a MUD
client able to view FANSI 2.0 correctly. Please see the Comprehensive
Specification page for broader information on FANSI, including what is required
for MUD servers.
Overview
FANSI 2.0 is supported by several major clients, including MUSHClient,
Z-Mud, CMUD, WinTin.NET and Putty. A MUD Client that supports FANSI 2.0 does the
following:
1. Displays the IBM/OEM extended characters
(code page 437):
The user should be allowed, if they so choose, to display the IBM/OEM (code page 437) extended
characters. This can be accomplished:
- (For Windows clients) By allowing the built-in "Terminal"
bitmap font to be selectable as a font choice for the MUD output screens, or
- Allowing another font that displays the extended characters from
the 437 code page, or
- By allowing the user to use any fixed-width font for the
standard ASCII characters, but then replacing
the special characters with the Unicode equivalents of the IBM/OEM extended characters.
The exact characters that should be displayable from code page 437
are: 1, 3-6, 14-26, 28-31, and 127 through 254. Those characters are:
☺♥♦♣♠♫☼►◄↕‼¶§‗↨↑↓→∟↔▲▼⌂ÇüéâäàåçêëèïîìÄÅÉæÆôöòûùÿÖÜ¢£¥₧ƒáíóúñѪº¿¬¬½¼¡«»░▒▓│┤╡╢╖╕╣║╗╝╜╛┐└┴┬├─┼╞╟╚╔╩╦╠═╬╧╨╤╥╙╘
╒╓╫╪┘┌█▄▌▐▀αβΓπΣδμτФθΩδ∞øЄ∩≡±≥≤⌠⌡÷≈º•·√ⁿ²■
While it is preferred that all of these characters be
displayable, some "FANSI capable" clients are unable to display some of
them, while still displaying most.
2. Allows either XTerm 256 colors or MXP
colors
FANSI capable clients allow 256 colors, either through XTerm's 256
color codes, or via MXP's <COLOR> (<C>) tags. XTerm's 256 color codes
are easier to add than MXP, and they come in the following format:
Foreground color change: <ANSI escape
code>[38;5;<0-255>m
Background color change: <ANSI escape
code>[48;5;<0-255>m
To reset fore and background colors to their defaults: <ANSI escape code>[0m
The <ANSI escape code> is ASCII character 27.
The <0-255> number is the color number, which is organized as follows:
- 0 through 15 are the same as the first 16 standard ANSI colors.
(In order: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, bright black,
bright red, bright green, bright yellow, bright blue, bright magenta, bright cyan,
and bright white.) These should already be available in your MUD client, so use
the same colors you currently use.
- 16 through 231 are a red/green/blue 6x6x6 color cube based upon
the formula:
16 + (<Red> * 36) + (<Green> * 6) + <Blue>
where <Red>, <Green>, and <Blue> are values from 0 to 5.
- 232 through 255 are 24 tone grayscale ramp gradiating from black
to bright gray.
For a color table with the exact red/green/blue values of
colors 16-255, see the
Comprehensive Specification page. For examples of 256 color implementation code, see
the 256 Color Implementation page.
If your client already supports MXP, or you wish to support MXP
instead of
the XTerm 256 color codes, see the MXP specification.