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You don't need an intricate understanding of the ANSI protocol to start
making pretty pictures.  All you really need is a good ANSI editor.  An
ANSI editor is something of a cross between a paint programme and a text
editor.  A good one is designed to provide the user with an easy-to-use,
intuition-based, DPaint-like format for 'drawing' ANSI screens and to do
most of the nuts-and-bolts ANSI code generation automatically.  For
instance, the user would simply click on a gadget to change text colours
rather than entering the full ANSI code.

For non-animated ANSI screens, I would highly recommend using  BBS-DRAW.
It is extremely easy to use and is available through most Public Domain/
Shareware archives.  I have used this programme for close to a year and
have found that it generates code very nearly as 'smart' as my own with
only a very few exceptions (plus working with it is considerably easier
than pounding out ESC codes blindly in a text editor.)

I'd also highly recommend getting a copy of  SKYPAINT.  SKYPAINT has the
virtue of being the only ANSI editor equipped to interpret and generate
standard SkyPix code.  It is also relatively versatile and easy to use and
it implements most of the  SkyPix commands automatically using a
point-and-click gadget box.  At any rate, it's a GREAT DEAL faster than
trying to enter them by hand and you can see the immediate results of each
command as you create your file.

For ANSI animations (ANSI-Mations), I generally use  DIANE (Digital
Intelligence Animation Editor.)  This programme also uses an intuition-
based interface, but it employs a clever device which treats each
character placed on the screen as a separate 'frame' in the animation,
allowing the user to move between 'frames,' add, and edit 'frames' much
like a real animation program.  Backdrops for the entire animation can
also be loaded.  The only drawback of DIANE is that it is limited to 8
colours, but it is still my first choice.

For the other end of the line, I would recommend getting  TERMINUS v2 or
 TERM v4 (Workbench 2 and above) for emulating IBM ANSI.  If you use
TERM, I would also recommend using the (included) xemibm.library, since it
seems to provide better ANSI compliance than TERM's built-in ANSI/VT-102
routines.  For SkyPix,  JR-COMM is still your best bet.  SKYTERM is
another option, although (surprisingly enough, since Michael Cox wrote it)
it does not conform as well to the SkyPix standard as JR-COMM.  Most
SkyPix-supporting BBS's (mine included) are designed to work with JR-COMM
rather than SKYTERM.

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