SimultaneousConsoleIO

SimultaneousConsoleIO is a C# tool that allows you to read from and write to the console at the same time.
Therefore no more annoying blocking by Console.ReadLine() preventing text from being written to the console while the program waits for user input.

Features

SimultaneousConsoleIO tries to emulate console functionality from Console.ReadLine() as completely as possible and has some additional features such as printing text in the input area which the user can then edit.
Still, some features are missing as of now. See below for a full list of supported actions.

Keys & Shortcuts

Supported Keys & Shortcuts:

Shortcut	Description
Enter	Execute command
Backspace	Delete character left of cursor, move cursor one to the left
Arrow left	Move cursor one to the left
Arrow right	Move cursor one to the right
Home	Move cursor to start of input
End	Move cursor to end of input
ctrl+alt+... / altgr+...	Type certain special characters
ctrl+m	Switch to highlight mode
ctrl+a	Highlight all text
ctrl+c	Copy highlighted text to clipboard
ctrl+v	Paste text from clipboard
ctrl+f	Find keyword
shift+Arr left	Highlight cursor plus previous character
shift+Arr right	Highlight cursor plus next character
shift+Arr up	Highlight text between cursor and same horizontal cursor position one line higher
shift+Arr down	Highlight text between cursor and same horizontal cursor position one line lower
shift+Home	Highlight input before cursor
shift+End	Highlight input after cursor
ctrl+shift+Home	Highlight everything before cursor
ctrl+shift+End	Highlight everything after cursor
ctrl+Arr up	Scroll one line up
ctrl+Arr down	Scroll one line down
F11 / Alt+Enter	Maximize console window

Unsupported Keys & Shortcuts:

Shortcut	Description
Tab	Autocompletes file names
Insert	Switches to insertion mode
ctrl+x	Cut highlighted text to clipboard
Arr right at end of input	Writes last command char by char
ctrl+Backspace	Delete complete word
ctrl+Arr left	Move cursor to last word
ctrl+Arr right	Move cursor to next word

Problematic (and therefore disabled) Keys & Shortcuts:

Shortcut	Description
F...	All F key functionality except F11 (see above)
ctrl+Space	Does nothing particular in console, but caused problem here

(list of keys and shortcuts is probably not complete)

How to use

SimultaneousConsoleIO provides two interfaces for you to use plus the SimulConsoleIO class which handles all the console logic. You probably do not need to change that class.
Below are descriptions of its parts to help you use SimultaneousConsoleIO. You can also take a look at the example implementation located in /src/Example and run it to see SimultaneousConsoleIO in action.

SimulConsoleIO

The SimulConsoleIO class handles most of the logic and emulates normal console behaviour and functionality (like Console.ReadLine()).

The class has the two most important methods:

• WriteLine: used to replace Console.WriteLine(), allowing text to be written to the console while the ReadLine method is active.
• ReadLine: used to replace Console.ReadLine(), reading user input while still allowing the console to print output with the WriteLine method.
  The prompt parameter allows adding a prompt text before of the user input area.
  The inputText parameter can be used to write text in the input are, which the user can then edit or complete.

Further methods:

• Write: used to replace Console.Write(), otherwise works like WriteLine above.
• ForcePrintQueue: prints all buffered output text to the console. Usually not needed, because SimulConsoleIO does that periodically, but useful before stopping the program etc., because otherwise not yet printed text might be lost.

Important: do not use Console.WriteLine() or Console.ReadLine() while using SimulConsoleIO. Doing so might break the console.

IOutputWriter

The OutputWriter interface is used as the general intermediary to the actual console output (Console.WriteLine()) which is and should only be used by SimulConsoleIO.
Use it (or rather SimulConsoleIO's wrapper method WriteLine) to write any text to the console.

The interface has two methods:

• AddText: used to add text to the output (queue), also used by SimulConsoleIO wrapped in a writeline emulating method which should be used instead of Console.WriteLine().
• GetText: used by SimulConsoleIO to get all the text to be printed from the OutputWriter and print it. You have to format the text as SimulConsoleIO just prints it as it receives it.

ITextProvider

The TextProvider interface is used for printing text while the user is entering input.
As it is independet from the user's actions you can use it to print information from certain events (such as log messages) or wait until certain conditions are true where you want to print text.

The interface has two methods:

• SetOutputWriter: used to set OutputWriter of TextProvider, therefore making sure TextProvider has an OutputWriter and automize setting it by letting SimulConsoleIO do it.
• CheckForText: used by SimulConsoleIO every cycle when output can be printed. Can be used for continually checking conditions and returning some text for printing once the conditions are met.