How can I specify the size of the python command line window in my code?

[adanaz]

I am making a text adventure and would like the command line window to be a specific size when you run the .py file in the command line window. eg. 300 wide by 250 height. I found a thread on here that shows how to specify the text colour which I also wanted to know. http://www.daniweb.com/forums/post1150939.html#post1150939 Can anybody help? Thanks.

[vegaseat]

My advice, run it from IDLE and you get an adjustable output window with a nice background that works across several common platforms.

[adanaz]

Thanks for the advice but I'm trying to make my game retro, like the old text based games such as Zork etc. The green text on a black background is classic.

[redyugi]

Thanks for the advice but I'm trying to make my game retro, like the old text based games such as Zork etc. The green text on a black background is classic.

Honestly, get pygame. Its easy to do a text based game with pygame. It will make a screen, and will update with text. Simple simple things.

Make a surface. Fill surface with black.
Make text surface. Write that text to the original surface.
Call for update, and repeat.

[adanaz]

Thanks, but I havnt got into the pygame stuff yet.

[redyugi]

Well that was just a suggestion. Good luck though

[Tech B]

for the width try

import os
os.system("mode con cols=50")

and for the length

os.system("mode con lines=20")

#you could also combine them
os.system("mode con cols=50 lines=20")

Play around with the numbers until ya find a size you like.
This is windows only.

[adanaz]

THANKS ALOT DUDE! Finally I have the answer! Nice one!

[Tech B]

Your welcome. and don't forget to mark as solved. :)

[DubWine]

@Tech B

Is there a way of using variables to set the cols and lines values?

[Gribouillis]

@DubWine hi, it seems that there are solutions by using the ctypes module and the setconsolewindoinfo method in windows api. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3646362/how-to-control-the-size-of-the-windows-shell-window-from-within-a-python-script for example. Also google the keywords python and setconsolewindowinfo.

Edit: you can also read the console dimension without a subprocess as in http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Terminal_control/Dimensions#Python

[DubWine]

Can't seem to make an edit or comment to @Gribouillis, did I miss something?

Anyway... I figured it out; os.system() takes a string value so you can simply do:

width = "100"
height = "30"

os.system("mode con cols="+width+"lines="+height)

Thanks for the links @Gribouillis; ctypes looks more in depth and customisable so will check it out.