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  You can look at ANSI driver commands in two ways: from the perspective of
  the user, who can use the ANSI driver to perform a few beneficial tricks,
  and from the perspective of the programmer, who can use it as an aid to
  program development.

  Many users often regard the ANSI driver as a poor man's keyboard enhancer.
  By using the keyboard translation commands, as we mentioned earlier, you
  can roughly simulate the keyboard "macro" features of commercial
  keyboard-enhancer programs.

  You can also use the ANSI driver as a DOS command-prompt enhancer. Usually
  the keyboard commands are activated by placing them in a text file and
  sending them to the screen (and therefore to the ANSI driver) with the
  TYPE command. By embedding ANSI driver commands into the prompt string,
  however, you can move the cursor to the top of the screen, display the
  date and time in reverse video, and then return the cursor to its regular
  position, or you can even clear the screen and then paint a complete menu
  display. The possibilities are endless.

  From a programmer's point of view, the ANSI driver has two main benefits
  to offer:

  .  It makes the most crucial BIOS-type services available to any
     programming language.

  .  It lets you write programs for any DOS computer (not just the PC
     family) that uses the ANSI driver.

  Despite these apparent advantages, we generally believe that relying on
  ANSI driver commands in your programs is not a good idea. For one thing,
  it requires that the ANSI driver be installed in any computer that your
  programs are used on, which complicates the instructions that you have to
  prepare to accompany the programs. It is difficult enough trying to
  explain the setup and use of your programs to both novices and experts
  without adding extra layers of complexity, such as the explanation of how
  to install the ANSI driver.

  More important, however, is the fact that, compared to other methods that
  are available, the ANSI driver is pathetically slow in generating
  full-screen output. For a direct comparison of the relative speed of the
  ANSI driver, the ROM BIOS services, and direct-to-memory screen output,
  play with the NU program in the Norton Utilities set. The NU program
  contains three screen drivers that use these three output methods. If you
  try them all, you'll quickly see how much slower the ANSI driver is.
  Unless little screen output will be displayed, the ANSI driver is too slow
  to be satisfactory.