Pantalk is an out-dated, obscure cross-platform programming language developed in the early 1980s for use on Canal Plus' MediaHighway interactive tv platform and other embedded environments. MediaHighway itself is built to accommodate several different languages via the use of installed OEM virtual machines (such as MHEG and MHP) but Pantalk acts as the low level OS language for talking directly to set-top box components.

Pantalk is an interpreted language in which structured code written as ASCII text (*.isc files) can be compiled into bytecode (p-code, or *.isu files). It features the usual complement of control structures, operators, variable types and statements that you expect from any compiled or interpreted language, and it also has features of its own. For example the variables declaration, the memory allocation, the management of the graphics and widgets.

Pantalk manages single scalar variables up to multidimensional arrays. The available types are: Integer, Real, Alpha, Alphanu , Date, Time, Text, Memory.

A Pantalk script does not have any header or script name and does not require the Return or End statement at the end of a procedure. Every statements must end with a semi colon. There are two types of script, the panel and the independent script.

Panel script: a panel is a group of graphical objects named widgets. Each graphical object is also called a widget because it can trigger one or several scripts. When a widget invokes a script, the script must be a panel script. A panel script can invoke any types of script, panel or independent. Such a script is named Panel script and is stored in a library of panel scripts only.

Independent script: an independent script can be invoked by any other scripts and by a module boot sequence. An independent script cannot invoke a panel script. When calling a script, the script path must be specified. The path specifies the script location ( which module and script library it pertains to).

 /* set courier font for a target   */
fontname := "helvetica";

/* 1 corresponds to Courier        */
/* 10 is the size                  */

XSet_Font ( winId, 1,10 );
XGet_Font_Size ( winId, 100,150, fwidth, fheight, fbaseline );

XDraw_String ( winId, 60, 80, "Hello World" );

XSet_Show_String ( 4, 5, fontname, 10 );

/* display a string in the middle  */
/* of the upper part of the screen */

XShow_String ( 200, 10, "Hello again world" );

Note: NDS recently acquired MediaHighway. http://mediahighway.nds.com/

External links

• MediaHighway Homepage
• Pantalk/Mediahighway jobs
• Pantalk language reference from HyperPanel