cppconlib: A C++ library for working with the Windows console

Many years ago I published on my blog a helper class for working with the Windows console that was wrapping the Windows console API. Looking back at it I realized it was a pretty naive implementation. So I decided to start a new and make something more flexible and easier to use. Hopefully, I was more successful. The result is a small C++ template library called cppconlib, available on codeplex.

cppconlib is built with C++11 features and requires Visual Studio 2012 or newer. The library is available in a single header called conmanip.h and provides a set of helper classes, functions and constants for manipulating a Windows console (using the Windows console functions). The library features the following components:

• console_context<T>: represents a context object for console operations; its main purpose is restoring console settings; typedefs for the three consoles are available (console_in_context, console_out_context and console_err_context)
• console<T>: represents a console objects providing operations such as changing the foreground and background colors, the input mode, screen buffer size, title, and others; typedefs for the three consoles are available (console_in, console_out and console_err)
• manipulating functions that can be used with cout/wcout and cin/wcin: settextcolor()/restoretextcolor(), setbgcolor()/restorebgcolor(), setcolors(), setmode()/clearmode(), setposx()/setposy()/setpos().

The library can be downloaded from here. Detailed documentation is available here.

Examples

The following example prints some text in custom colors and then reads text in a different set of colors.

#include "conmanip.h"
using namespace conmanip;

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
   // create a console context object, used for restoring console settings
   console_out_context ctxout;
   // create a console object
   console_out conout(ctxout);

   // change the title of the console
   conout.settitle("cppconlib");

   // output text with colors
   std::cout 
      << settextcolor(console_text_colors::light_yellow)
      << setbgcolor(console_bg_colors::cyan)
      << "This text is colored: ";

   // read text with colors
   std::string text;
   std::cin 
      >> settextcolor(console_text_colors::cyan)
      >> setbgcolor(console_bg_colors::light_yellow)
      >> text;

   std::cout << std::endl;

   // restore console attributes (text and background colors)
   ctxout.restore(console_cleanup_options::restore_attibutes);

   return 0;
} // -> console settings are restored here when the context object goes out of scope

The following code prints a rhomb to the console:

int main()
{
   console_out_context ctxout;
   console_out conout(ctxout);

   conout.settitle("cppconlib");

   int depth;
   std::cout << "Depth (1-9)? ";
   std::cin >> depth;

   int middle = conout.getsize().X/2;
   for(int i = 1; i <= depth; ++i)
   {
      std::cout << setposx(middle-i+1);

      for(int j = 1; j<=i; ++j)
      {
         std::cout << i << " ";
      }
      std::cout << "\n";
   }

   for(int i = depth-1; i >=1; --i)
   {
      std::cout << setposx(middle-i+1);

      for(int j = 1; j<=i; ++j)
      {
         std::cout << i << " ";
      }
      std::cout << "\n";
   }

   return 0;
}

For more details and updates check the project at codeplex: https://cppconlib.codeplex.com.

UPDATE: A NuGet package for cppconlib is available.