CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++cwindowsconsole
user1522973
user1522973

Reputation:

Adding custom controls to a console window

Is it possible to add custom controls to a console window? You can use GetConsoleWindow() to get the window's handle, and then add your own menu items or consume all its events. I can't find any examples of people adding extra controls though.

I am developing a small, high performance serial terminal app. It is a console application - RichTextBox is too slow and has issues that make it unsuitable for VT100 terminal emulation.

I want to add some little graphics to show the state of the serial control lines (RTS/CTS/DTR/RI etc.) and perhaps a capture on/off toggle button. Ideally I'd like to add them to the window title bar. Bitmaps are all that are required.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 225

Answers (1)

user1522973
user1522973

Reputation:

After lots of research I found that it isn't easy, or even possible really.

You can add controls to the window with CreateWindow(), but of course only in the client area which is taken up entirely by the console text box. However, you can at least create floating controls that way, which hover over the text to provide status info etc.

You can put controls in the window borders but only with some hacking on XP or a new API that was introduced with Vista. The problem with this API is that it requires you to draw your own program icon and title text, and the console window doesn't seem to cope with it very well.

You can't add your own menu items because the console window doesn't pass the messages.

In the end I used the function keys for everything and gave a status indication by changing the console window icon.

Upvotes: 2

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