Create window console inside main win32 window - c++

Question

I have a win32 application that need to open a console like the games when tilde is pressed. I tought that the best solution is to use the CreateWindow function. Is this right? How could I make it overlapping the main window and hiding it when tilde is pressed again? Thank you all

Answer 1

The solutions here won't work because newer versions of the Windows SDK define the FILE structure by:
#ifndef _FILE_DEFINED
#define _FILE_DEFINED
typedef struct _iobuf
{
void* _Placeholder;
} FILE;
#endif
When trying to overwrite the stdin/out FILE structures with the = operator, only one pointer will be copied. To copy the whole FILE struct, you have to define the FILE structure before your windows.h include:
#ifndef _FILE_DEFINED
struct _iobuf {
char *_ptr;
int _cnt;
char *_base;
int _flag;
int _file;
int _charbuf;
int _bufsiz;
char *_tmpfname;
};
typedef struct _iobuf FILE;
#define _FILE_DEFINED
#endif
#include <Windows.h>
If this is somehow not possible for you, you can still define your own FILE structure as FILE_COMPLETE and use this codesnippet:
#include <Windows.h>
#include <io.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
AllocConsole();
SetConsoleTitleA("ConsoleTitle");
typedef struct { char* _ptr; int _cnt; char* _base; int _flag; int _file; int _charbuf; int _bufsiz; char* _tmpfname; } FILE_COMPLETE;
*(FILE_COMPLETE*)stdout = *(FILE_COMPLETE*)_fdopen(_open_osfhandle((long)GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), _O_TEXT), "w");
*(FILE_COMPLETE*)stderr = *(FILE_COMPLETE*)_fdopen(_open_osfhandle((long)GetStdHandle(STD_ERROR_HANDLE), _O_TEXT), "w");
*(FILE_COMPLETE*)stdin = *(FILE_COMPLETE*)_fdopen(_open_osfhandle((long)GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE), _O_TEXT), "r");
setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0);
setvbuf(stderr, NULL, _IONBF, 0);
setvbuf(stdin, NULL, _IONBF, 0);

Answer 2

It's often tempting to use a console window in your app (using AllocConsole), but it is definitely NOT a standard reusable Windows control. It has a lot of special behaviors and features which make it unique from a typical window.
For this reason, I would agree with your instinct, against using a true 'Console' window. Make your own window with a text editor in it, as you would develop any other UI component like a HUD.
Whether you should use CreateWindow is hard to say: how are you doing the rest of your GUI? DirectX? GDI? Some toolkit? Are you using other standard windows controls?

Answer 3

This is some pretty old code, haven't even really looked over it. Hopefully it's what you need. If you just need a very simple one you can also just make a call to AllocConsole();
void DevConsole::Create(){
CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO consoleInfo;
int consoleHandleR, consoleHandleW ;
long stdioHandle;
FILE *fptr;
AllocConsole();
std::wstring strW = L"Dev Console";
SetConsoleTitle( strW.c_str() );
EnableMenuItem(GetSystemMenu(GetConsoleWindow(), FALSE), SC_CLOSE , MF_GRAYED);
DrawMenuBar(GetConsoleWindow());
GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo( GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), &consoleInfo );
stdioHandle = (long)GetStdHandle( STD_INPUT_HANDLE );
consoleHandleR = _open_osfhandle( stdioHandle, _O_TEXT );
fptr = _fdopen( consoleHandleR, "r" );
*stdin = *fptr;
setvbuf( stdin, NULL, _IONBF, 0 );
stdioHandle = (long) GetStdHandle( STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE );
consoleHandleW = _open_osfhandle( stdioHandle, _O_TEXT );
fptr = _fdopen( consoleHandleW, "w" );
*stdout = *fptr;
setvbuf( stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0 );
stdioHandle = (long)GetStdHandle( STD_ERROR_HANDLE );
*stderr = *fptr;
setvbuf( stderr, NULL, _IONBF, 0 );
}

Answer 4

I found this little tutorial / code samples useful.
http://www.halcyon.com/~ast/dload/guicon.htm
It creates a console and redirects STD_IN and STD_OUT to the console.
So you can easily use std::cin and std::cout etc streams.