A way of encoding ComputerCraft terminal colours inside strings.

coloured_string_standard.lua

-- Made by viluon, copyright 2016 under the MIT License (https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

local str = [[
@t5Hello@ta World!
@tf@b0How are you people?
I am viluon;@b1@t0 <@tdviluon@t0\@@tbespiv.net@t0>]]

local pos, escape = 1
local set_fg = term.setTextColour
local set_bg = term.setBackgroundColour

while pos <= #str do
	local char = str:sub( pos, pos )

	if not escape and char == "@" then
		pos = pos + 1
		local command = str:sub( pos, pos )

		pos = pos + 1
		local colour = 2 ^ tonumber( str:sub( pos, pos ), 16 )

		if command == "t" then
			set_fg( colour )
		elseif command == "b" then
			set_bg( colour )
		end

	elseif not escape and char == "\\" then
		escape = true

	else
		write( char )
		escape = false
	end

	pos = pos + 1
end