David Etheredge wrote in a message to All:

 DE> I am writing a program designed for the OS/2 full screen mode

Why are you targeting full screen?  It is very rarely needed these days.

 DE> and need to use  different colored characters on the
 DE> screen. In dos,there are textcolor() and textbackground()
 DE> procedures prototyped in conio.h.

These functions are unique to Borland compilers, not to the operating system.

 DE> These are missing in OS/2 C-set.

Yes.

 DE> I know that in many cases, I can use ANSI escape
 DE> sequences yo acomplish this. Is this always acceptable in
 DE> OS/2? Does OS/2 accept ANSI escape sequences by default or
 DE> do I need to check to see if an ANSI driver is loaded?

There is always ANSI support available, although it may not be enabled. 
You can use the API calls VioGetANSI() to find out what the state is by
default and VioSetANSI() if you need to change it.

 DE> Is there another alternative?

ANSI is actually a good approach.  You could use other VioXxxxx() API calls
to manage the video attributes explicitly if you like.  Much of the Vio API
is also accessible in Family Mode programs which are specially linked to
run under both OS/2 and DOS.

 DE> Can I use the BIOS video calls to set color?

No.  The operating system cannot be bypassed under OS/2.

 DE> What about direct screen writes, from what I
 DE> understand, OS/2 does not like that at all.

The facility does exist, and API calls such as VioGetBuf() and
VioGetPhysBuf() do exist for this purpose.  However, the regular Vio
subsystem is quite fast.

 DE> Thanks, Any help is appreciated.

What you want is the documentation for the Vio API calls: PRCP.ZIP, 412 KB,
available here for FReq or download.
 
-- Mike


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