From: Yohanes Santoso <ysantoso-rubytalk@...>
Date: 2006-01-05T03:18:09+09:00
Subject: Re: Is there a way to clear the contents of a terminal?

John Maclean <info@jayeola.org> writes:

> Hi Chaps,
>
> MATLAB uses cls, in a bash shell I'd use clear. Is there a way to clear the contents of a terminal -safely-?
>
> -- 
> John Maclean
> MSc (DIC)
> 07739 171 531

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CLEAR_TERMINAL_CMD = `/usr/bin/clear`

def clear_screen
    print CLEAR_TERMINAL_CMD
end

clear_screen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above is the simplest, most portable solution. Sadly, most
portable here extends only to within unix system. There is no single
solution that works with both win32 and unix.

Other solutions (for unix):

1. Print \n a number of times. You can't tell how many \n you need to
   print. Some environments gives you the LINES env. variable, but not
   all.

2. Hard code some terminal escape sequence. Definitely not portable
   between different terminal types. /usr/bin/clear uses curses which
   in turn consults the terminfo database for the correct escape
   sequence on the current terminal.

3. Link to curses itself. Not simple.

4. Consult terminfo database yourself. Location is not standard and
   most probably not as simple as the /usr/bin/clear solution.

YS.