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xConsole Project

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4.74/5 (11 votes)

Jul 26, 2013

GPL3

2 min read

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Coloring the window console

Introduction

Hi, it`s my project called xConsole, in few words this DLL gives you the ability to color, animate comfortably the console window, parse input, modify fonts and more.

It has been written in C# .NET 4.5.

Using the Library

  1. Add Reference > xConsole.dll
  2. using xConsoleProject;

Example of coloring:

xConsole.WriteLine("^yLorem ipsum dolor sit amet^r, consectetur adipiscing elit. " + 
     "^.Nullam porttitor lectus justo, vel viverra est pellentesque non.^!"); 

^y Set Yellow Color
^r Set Red Color
^. Set a Random Color (different from the background)
^! Restore default font color

*y *r *m Sets Colors
*. Random background Color
*! Restore default bg.

xConsole.CoolWriteLine("I like write like a boss.");
 
// OR

xConsole.CoolWriting = true;
xConsole.WriteLine("^600I like write ^F00like a boss"); // Or 6 digits (^FF00FF)..
xConsole.WriteLine("Yes ^ycolors is ^msupported^!");
xConsole.CoolWriting = false;

[Updated] List of Colors

Using enum (now same of Microsoft):

public enum ConsoleColor
{
    Black = 0,
    DarkBlue = 1,
    DarkGreen = 2,
    DarkCyan = 3,
    DarkRed = 4,
    DarkMagenta = 5,
    DarkYellow = 6,
    Gray = 7,
    DarkGray = 8,
    Blue = 9,
    Green = 10,
    Cyan = 11,
    Red = 12,
    Magenta = 13,
    Yellow = 14,
    White = 15,
} 

HEX to ConsoleColor (the HEX code must be uppercase):

xConsole.WriteLine("^600I like to paint ^F00like a boss");

With letters:

xConsole.WriteLine("^yI like to paint ^rlike a boss");
w:    White
z:    Black
y:    Yellow
g:    Green
r:    Red
b:    Blue
c:    Cyan
m:    Magenta

Read Line

 var args = xConsole.ReadLine();

Will give back a List<string> (never null) contains the arguments parsed, entered by the user, Like:

Hi "this is a string" then 9999

[0] = Hi
[1] = This is a string
[2] = then
[3] = 9999

An empty input: (list size 1, value empty string)

[0] =

So you need to check if its string is Empty. Yeah, i don't like null values..

Spinner

This class allows you to create an animated spinner.

var spinner = new xConsole.Spinner();
                
new Thread(delegate()
{
    //Spin until user interruption
    Console.ReadKey(true);

    spinner.Break();
    xConsole.Write("^11OK!^!");
}).Start();

xConsole.Write("^2STATUS: ^7"); 
// Waiting the thread is done.
while (spinner.Turn());

Move window

SetWindowPos(int x, int y); 

Other

I also added console helper.

xConsole.SetFont(int);  

Set font, list font, change icon...

Next Update

  • Sound management?

History

23/05/2014
  • Now check updates every 30 days (only in debug)
  • No more create registry key in release
  • Removed Stats sending
  • Removed Settings
  • Fixed ClearColorsAtEnd function (restoring previous colors)
  • Added Test program (Both sources)
21/01/2014
  • Released source code (v 0.3)
  • It's not a spywere see above
18/01/2014
  • [NEW] Optional separate-thread writer (default ON)
  • [NEW] Random color always != from background
  • [NEW] Background colors using * tag
  • [NEW] Update Checking (only in debug)
  • [NEW] New Functions like WaitQueue (main program wait until the queue is resolved)
  • [UPDATED] Fixed a bug in the spinning
  • [UPDATED] Spinning now supports colors
  • [???] A lot of emoji in the code
  • [Source Code] will be available, I need to make it beautiful, btw you can reflect it
  • [It would] be nice to do a port to C++
27/07/2013
  • Improved method of color selection
    Now you can use ^RBG colors (3bytes), like ^F00 = red
    ^00F = Blue, ^0F0 = green, ^600 = darkred ...etc... (RBG colors is rounded to ConsoleColors)
    and ^y = yellow
    ^r = red
    ^m = magenta .. etc
  • Random color moved to ^.