[Tutor] Clearing the Console Screen

[Kent Johnson]

Don Parris wrote:
> Thanks!  I thought there had to be a way to call the OS' clear screen
> command, but was going about it the wrong way.  I was trying to use
> sys.clear instead of os.system.  Would it be difficult to test the OS,
> store the result in a variable, and call the comand based on the variable
> result?  Or would it be simpler to have users edit the script for their OS?

You could try this (from http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/3edf6589c533f78e):

import os
if os.name == "nt":          
        os.system("cls")      # Works in w2k
else:
         os.system("clear")   # Works in cygwin's Bash 


> Mind you, there may be other areas where I need an OS-specific command.  I'm
> beginning to get an idea of the challenges of portability though. ;)

Python actually gets a lot of this right, you may find it's easier than you think to write portable Python.

Kent