I'm writing a windowed program in C++, but I would like to have the option to pop up a console to output to from inside the program (such as various things that go on behind the scenes of my program, to see that everything is acting correctly). Is there an easy way to do this?
EDIT:
In this particular case I'm using sfml on windows, but for the purposes of this question it can be any API or platform (and platform independent solutions are best)
If you are talking about MS Windows, which your question does not make clear, you can use the AllocConsole API to create a console. for your app.
Edit: You say that it could be any platform, but this is not so as many platforms have no concept of a console. For this reason, a cross-platform solution is not possible.
There are Windows API functions to deal with console management. This might be a good starting point.
Its easy to just open a console with system("cmd.exe"); But the communication part is not so easy. My intuitive feeling tells me that there exists a third party that satisfied your need. Might be worth looking at win32api or AllocConsole API (if you are using .NET) before experimenting with 3rd party libs.
Related
I have developed communication program with c++ console programming, it is complete and works fine. Now I need to change my code for some real-time purpose, where I need to use the previous and add further and generate the .avi movie (most probably with BMP images).
The thing is the that as I have understood that the movie can only be generated with win32 c++ and not console programming?
hence
1. Can I use the same code (with necessary changes ofcourse) and the APIs that I was using in console programming with the win32 programming?
Can I go the other way around, i.e. make the movie generation code in win32 c++ and later include somehow in the console program. If yes, any idea?
any other idea is also appreciable
There's no difference to Win32 programming and "console" programming - you can use both at the same time. The only difference is the main entry function you're using (most often main vs. WinMain). So, don't bother setting up a new project if the console app could be adjusted more easily.
In fact, console apps can even make windows, and a window-based app can create it's own consoles as well. And there's no difference to Win32 C++ and console C++ (apart from the main entry function you're using I've mentioned and the idiomatic way to communicate input and output).
I'm actually in charge of a FIP networking c++ application, working for the first time with Embarcadero C++ Builder XE5.
The app is nearly finished, but I can't find how to implement the last feature...
I wanted to open an external Windows HyperTerminal in order to see what happen on a given COM port, for this purpose I'm using ShellExecute() to launch it from my application but it's a bit ugly since there is 2 different windows.
I was wondering if it was possible to integrate this newly opened HyperTerminal into an existing form (Panel for instance). I couldn't find nothing related excepted this =>
Delphi style, but i don't understand a byte of #mghie answer since it's delphi.
If anyone have a clue I'm really interested, even the most basic clue!
For almost all of my projects where COM port interaction is needed I use AsyncPro. The project is very well documented with a ~1000 page reference manual.
Reference Manual
Developer's Guide
For this case, the package provides a VCL terminal that simply drops onto a form. It's quite flexible with a lot of options to configure its behaviour.
I wanted something similar in past but with no success.
1.The only thing I was able to do is the exact opposite.
dock my VCL window inside another (not VCL app) but that solved my problems
If you terminal is console window then I doubt even this can be done.
anyway find handle of desired window
find handle to a dockable subcomponent
set the parent of your subwindow to it / or use manual dock
2.maybe you can do some funny stuff
like hide terminal somewhere
and continuoslly copy its graphics to your window
newer done that hide thing
but copy the contents is doable (although on windows a little unstable sometimes)
done it once to feed my App with IR-camera feed from different App
while 'focus' stays on hidden terminal it should work
also you can try to post messages to it somehow if you need the focus ...
Sorry for a vague answer but at least you see some approaches of mine
maybe someone has a better way to do this
I'm currently working on a cross-platform application (Win/OSX/iOS) which has a C++ (with Boost) back end. On iOS and OSX I'm using the Cocoa Net Service Browser Delegate functions to discover an embedded device via mDNS, then pass the information to the back end to create the objects it needs to communicate with it.
I wanted to take a similar approach with my Windows MFC front end and I found this article which seemed to do exactly what I want. However, it seems that using the Bonjour SDK has some really nasty side effects - forcing you to static link to MFC and in my case the only way I can get it to link properly is to not use debug DLLs at all, which is not ideal.
So, the Bonjour SDK isn't really any good for me because it imposes too many restrictions on my project. With Cocoa I'm actually using very little of the functionality - just didFindService and netServiceDidResolveAddress really. All I want to do is find the devices of a given type and get their IP addresses.
Can anyone suggest another way around this that will work with an MFC front end on Windows?
From what I have been able to gather from researching this topic just goto http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/mDNSResponder/mDNSResponder-333.10/ and grab the source. There is a VC project file which will let you build the dll how you want.
I've tried to find a way to detect when a new device (like a USB) is inserted into a computer, but everything I've seen required MFC, which I don't have. Is there a way to do this without MFC? If not, I understand, but I haven't seen anything of the like in my Google searches.
Thanks,
C++ by itself does not have any platform-dependent hardware-level functionality. You will need to use some API, like Win32 or MFC or .NET on Windows.
You can do this using libusb and there's a port of libusb for win32, so you might have some luck using that instead of MFC, with the added bonus of being more portable.
Handle the WM_DEVICECHANGE message.
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363480(v=vs.85).aspx
EDIT: Of course, this is Windows only, which the OP didn't specify. There's no way to do this without external libraries or platform specific APIs.
I have a GUI C++ application (Visual Studio 2008) that needs to be converted to a console one.
I don't have any experience in C programming. Mostly I use .NET. Where do I start?
Down-converting a GUI app is major surgery. The programming model is entirely different, a GUI app is event driven. Relying on a message loop to deliver events, processed in message handlers. And typically a bunch of controls that take care of the grunge work of taking input.
Given that you have to completely redesign the app to make it work as a console mode app and that you don't have experience with the language, writing this in a .NET language you have experience with is the best way to get it completed quickly.
Start with refactoring. Make sure that GUI is separated from business logic. Then add another interface to access this business logic: one that uses console, rather than GUI widgets.
Check out ncurses and readline to help you build a rich console application. You can't use them both at once, as I found out, so try ncurses if your application is more oriented toward output/display or will implement single-key interactions (hotkeys), and readline if it's more of a line-at-a-time user input situation.
Create a new project with a main
add your files
here you got a console application doing nothing. It may still create windows, or if you like, hidden windows.
Now it's up to your creativity to tie interface to existing code.
Don't forget to download and use boost::program_options to access command line parameters properly.