Editing ANSI escape code (section)

== Platform support ==

[[File:XtermMenus.png|thumb|The Xterm terminal emulator.|alt=Xterm terminal emulator]]In the early 1980s, large amounts of software directly used these sequences to update screen displays. This included everything on [[OpenVMS|VMS]] (which assumed DEC terminals), most software designed to be portable on [[CP/M]] home computers, and even lots of Unix software as it was easier to use than the termcap libraries, such as the shell script examples below in this article.

[[Terminal emulator]]s for communicating with remote machines almost always implement ANSI escape codes. This includes anything written to communicate with bulletin-board systems on home and personal computers. On Unix terminal emulators such as [[xterm]] also can communicate with software running on the same machine, and thus software running in X11 under a terminal emulator could assume the ability to write these sequences.

As computers got more powerful even built-in displays started supporting them, allowing software to be portable between CP/M systems. There were attempts to extend the escape sequences to support printers<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wiki.amigaos.net/wiki/Printer_Device#Printer_Command_Definitions |title=Amiga Printer Command Definitions |publisher=Commodore |access-date=2013-07-10}}</ref> and as an early PDF-like document storage format, the [[Open Document Architecture]].{{cn|date=November 2023}}

=== DOS and Windows ===
The IBM PC, introduced in 1981, did not support these or any other escape sequences for updating the screen. Only a few [[control character]]s ([[BEL (ASCII)|BEL]], [[CR (ASCII)|CR]], [[LF (ASCII)|LF]], [[BS (ASCII)|BS]]) were interpreted by the underlying BIOS.<!-- INT 10h/AH=0Eh --> Any display effects had to be done with BIOS calls, which were notoriously slow, or by directly manipulating the IBM PC hardware. This made any interesting software non-portable and led to the need to duplicate details of the display hardware in [[IBM PC compatible|PC Clone]]s.

DOS version 2.0 included an optional [[device driver]] named {{mono|[[ANSI.SYS]]}}. Poor performance, and the fact that it was not installed by default, meant software rarely (if ever) took advantage of it.

The [[Windows Console]] did not support ANSI escape sequences, nor did Microsoft provide any method to enable them. Some replacements such as JP Software's [[Take Command Console|TCC]] (formerly 4NT), Michael J. Mefford's ANSI.COM, Jason Hood's {{mono|ANSICON}}<ref name="Ansicon">{{cite web
 |url=https://github.com/adoxa/ansicon
 |title=Process ANSI escape sequences for Windows console programs
 |publisher=Jason Hood's Home page
 |author-first=Jason |author-last=Hood
 |date=2005 |access-date=2013-05-09
}}</ref> and Maximus5's [[ConEmu]] enabled ANSI escape sequences. Software such as the Python colorama package<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pypi.python.org/pypi/colorama |title=colorama · PyPI |work=Python Package Index |access-date=2022-02-27}}</ref> or [[Cygwin]] modified text in-process as it was sent to the console, extracting the ANSI Escape sequences and emulating them with Windows calls.

In 2016, Microsoft released the [[Windows 10]] [[Windows 10 version history#Version 1511 (November Update)|version 1511]] update which unexpectedly implemented support for ANSI escape sequences, over three decades after the debut of Windows.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/console/console-virtual-terminal-sequences|title=Console Virtual Terminal Sequences - Windows Console|last=bitcrazed|website=docs.microsoft.com|language=en-us|access-date=2018-05-30}}</ref> This was done alongside [[Windows Subsystem for Linux]], apparently to allow [[Unix-like]] terminal-based software to use the Windows Console. Windows PowerShell 5.1 enabled this by default, and PowerShell 6 made it possible to embed the necessary ESC character into a string with {{code|`e}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_special_characters?view=powershell-6|title=PowerShell Help: About Special Characters|date=12 January 2023 }}</ref> 

[[Windows Terminal]], introduced in 2019, supports the sequences by default, and Microsoft intends to replace the Windows Console with Windows Terminal.<ref name="ms-console-roadmap">{{cite web
 |url = https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/console/ecosystem-roadmap#roadmap-for-the-future
 |title = Windows Console and Terminal Ecosystem Roadmap
 |publisher = Microsoft
 |date = 2018
 |access-date = 2021-03-13
| quote=this includes retiring the classic console host user interface from its default position in favor of Windows Terminal, ConPTY, and virtual terminal sequences.
}}</ref>