RS> Okay, I'm doing the same/similar in my msglist module. I just render the
 RS> ANSI to a virtual CGA-style screen buffer and then send the relevant
 RS> portions of that buffer to the user as they scroll the message body. So
 RS> if there's any overwriting or clearing in the ANSI, they only get/see
 RS> the final result. This discussion inspired that enhancement, so thanks
 RS> to Joe!

Cool stuff.  Thats basically what Mystic does.  It pre-processes everything and works along the lines of something like curses.

I do the same thing for importing FILE_ID.ANS format which is something I made up at some point over the years...

Mystic will render the ANSI to a local buffer to get the final result, and then convert that buffer into pipe codes internally before storing it (so that it shows as non-color to those who don't have it or full color for those that do using existing display system)...

It can then easily be stripped of pipe codes for things like .TIC files, file list compilers or whatever else may be required to not have color/codes in them.  And people who create the FILE_ID.ANS don't have to worry about stripping codes or doing really anything extra to make it work, it just shows up the same as it does when they save it in their ANSI editor.

... No one knows what's next, but everybody does it.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/03/26 (Windows/64)