blinkvideo

Syntax

#include <conio.h> void blinkvideo(void);

Description

Bit 7 (`MSB') of the character attribute byte has two possible effects on EGA and VGA displays: it can either make the character blink or change the background color to bright (thus allowing for 16 background colors as opposed to the usual 8). This function sets that bit to display blinking characters. After a call to this function, every character written to the screen with bit 7 of the attribute byte set, will blink. The companion function intensevideo (see section intensevideo) has the opposite effect.

Note that there is no BIOS function to get the current status of this bit, but bit 5 of the byte at 0040h:0065h in the BIOS area indicates the current state: if it's 1 (the default), blinking characters will be displayed.

Portability

ANSI/ISO C	No
POSIX	No