Handling text with ANSI codes in it

Question

Now I don't think this should be as hard as I'm making it out to be. The idea here is to properly display MUD text that is sent back to the player. The screen width is 80 characters. So basically we should wind up doing this:
-Count all characters in this line of text (which can be very large mind you) and make a new line every 80 characters. Words must be kept whole. The ANSI escape codes are ignored.
I've come up with code to (attempt) to solve this problem. I know it's extremely[b] inefficient for the counting of the characters, but I'm not really interested in that. What I'm more interested in is why I'm getting extremely wacky displays compared to when I use another method (one that was already written in the class I'm playing around with--the method is a huge for loop by the way).
This is the code that I've come up with:
String data2 = data;
    data2 = data2.replace("[BLACK]", "");
    data2 = data2.replace("[BLUE]", "");
    data2 = data2.replace("[CYAN]", "");
    data2 = data2.replace("[GREEN]", "");
    data2 = data2.replace("[MAGENTA]", "");
    data2 = data2.replace("[RED]", "");
    data2 = data2.replace("[WHITE]", "");
    data2 = data2.replace("[YELLOW]", "");
    data2 = data2.replace("", "");
data2 = data2.replace("[R]", "");
//Black.
data = data.replace("[BLACK]", "\033[30m");
//Blue.
data = data.replace("[BLUE]", "\033[34m");
//Cyan.
data = data.replace("[CYAN]", "\033[36m");
//Green.
data = data.replace("[GREEN]", "\033[32m");
//Magenta.
data = data.replace("[MAGENTA]", "\033[35m");
//Red.
data = data.replace("[RED]", "\033[31m");
//White.
data = data.replace("[WHITE]", "\033[37m");
//Yellow.
data = data.replace("[YELLOW]", "\033[33m");
//Bold.
data = data.replace("[B]", "\033[1m");
//Regular.
data = data.replace("[R]", "\033[22m");
//Count the characters. If they're greater than SCREEN_WIDTH, the lines need to be return-
//spaced somehow.
String output = data;
String res = "";
int charactersOnLine = data2.length();
int inserts = (int)(charactersOnLine / SCREEN_WIDTH);
for (int c = 0; c < inserts; c++) {
System.out.println("output: " + output);
if (charactersOnLine > SCREEN_WIDTH) {
int charactersToGoBack = charactersOnLine - SCREEN_WIDTH;
int indexOfNewLine = output.lastIndexOf(" ", (charactersOnLine - charactersToGoBack));
String temp = output.substring(indexOfNewLine);
System.out.println("Inserting at: " + indexOfNewLine);
output = insert(output, "\r\n", indexOfNewLine);
res += output;
output = temp;
The insert method was devised to stick a character into the middle of the String:
  public static String insert(String theString, String stringToBeInserted,
                              int pos) {
    String beforeString = theString.substring(0, pos + 1);
    String endString = theString.substring(pos + 1, theString.length() - 1);
    beforeString += stringToBeInserted;
    beforeString += endString;
    return beforeString;
  }Yes, I know... no error checks or throwing of exceptions. That's not really what I'm after right now though. Those will be added later once the stuff is actually working...
Here's the output with the method I'm working on right now (This is in XP's telnet client). The ANSI parses fine... It's the text placement I'm concerned about.
The output with the new method:
Please select a race:
                      Dwarf
                           d) Half-Elf       j) Illithid
                                                        e) Gnome       k) Troll
                                                                               f
) Aasimar        l) Tiefling
                            >a
Choose a gender for your character (M/F):
                                         >m
Gender chosen: male
                   The MORTAL Human Lazerz has been created.
                                                             north up
                                                                      A Head Hel
m X90 lies here, gleaming.
                          HP: 5/5 MV: 0/0 ]>l
north up
          A Head Helm X90 lies here, gleaming.
                                              HP: 5/5 MV: 0/0 ]>l
north up
          A Head Helm X90 lies here, gleaming.
                                              HP: 5/5 MV: 0/0 ]>Here' s what it's supposed to look like (This is output from the old clunky gigantic for loop):
Please select a race:
a) Human          g) Drow Elf
b) Moon Elf       h) Ogre
c) Dwarf          i) Duergar Dwarf
d) Half-Elf       j) Illithid
e) Gnome       k) Troll
f) Aasimar        l) Tiefling
aChoose a gender for your character (M/F):
mGender chosen: male
The MORTAL Human Ao has been created.
Test Room
This is the room that all testing occurs in. Here is where the Lord Ao will
reside in the future as well.
Exits: north up
A Human Commoner is here.
A Head Helm X90 lies here, gleaming.As you can see... There's quite a difference when using the two methods. The goal here is to fix the method I'm trying to make work. :)
Also: No, this isn't homework. And I would put up Duke Dollars if I had any left to put up.

Answer 1

Eh.. Must of forgot . o_o