Iris Terminal Protocol v1.0

The Iris Protocol is a lightweight convention that allows terminal applications to draw graphics and play sounds in real-time in a retro way. It was built to let developers write small prototypes and games without needing any external libraries to link—requiring only Windows environments and standard compilation runtimes. Contrary to other terminal protocols, Iris focuses purely on real-time software like video games, with the addition of PSG and 8-bit sample audio.

By capturing standard input-output pipes, the environment creates an isolated multimedia rendering viewport completely asynchronous to standard text-buffer processing arrays.

Download the latest version of the Iris SDK here for Windows.

Figure 1.1: The host iris.exe context window rendering the real-time "Bouncing Puppies" example.

Standard Output (`stdout`) Graphics Commands

\x1B[?] Handshake · \x1B[x] Clear Screen · \x1B[v] Echo Status · \x1B[wWidth;Height] Resize Canvas · \x1B[TTitle] Window Title · \x1B[fFontName;Size] Select Font · \x1B[cRRGGBBAA] Foreground Color · \x1B[bRRGGBBAA] Background Color · \x1B[BWidth;Height;Data] Draw Bitmap · \x1B[pX;Y] Move Cursor · \x1B[lX;Y;RGBA] Draw Line · \x1B[rX;Y;W;H;RGBA] Rectangle · \x1B[eX;Y;RX;RY;Clr] Ellipse Geometry

Standard Error (`stderr`) Audio Commands

\x1B[y] Enable Audio · \x1B[n] Disable Audio · \x1B[iSlot;Start;End;Freq;Size;Data] Store Sample · \x1B[cChannel;Type;Freq;Vol;P1;P2] Play Sound · \x1B[rChannel] Stop Channel · \x1B[fChannel;Freq] Live Frequency · \x1B[vChannel;Vol] Channel Volume · \x1B[mMaster] Master Mixer Volume
Note: The system layout emulates exactly 8 simultaneous audio hardware channels.

Example C Program Snippet

printf("\x1B[TBouncing Puppies]");
printf("\x1B[w640;480]");
for (;running;) {
    printf("\x1B[x]");
    if (mute) {
        printf("\x1B[fArial;12]");
        printf("\x1B[c0xFFFFFFFF]");
        printf("\x1B[p0;0]Puppies are mute");
    }
    printf("\x1B[p0;200]");
    printf("\x1B[c0xFF505050]");
    printf("The meaning of bouncing puppies is found in their simple joy:\n");
    printf("a reminder that life is not only about progress, but about wonder.\n");
}

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