SDL redirects stdout/cout, can't output to con

[Dark Nemesis]

	con = fopen("CON", "w");
	if (!con) {
		printf("Cannot open CON\n");
	}

That bit of code (after SDL_init()) causes Cannot open CON to be printed to stdout.txt ratrher than pointing a valid pointer to CON (DOS console, which I want). Even redirecting:

	freopen( "CON", "w", stdout );
	freopen( "CON", "w", stderr );

doesn't fix the problem as stdout and stderr now don't work at all.

(Note: SDL_init() redirects stdout and stderr to txt files). I've even tried using cout to find that it has the same problem.

I'm using borland 5.5, SDL 1.2 and windows XP SP2.

[Dave_Sinkula]

Do the calls to freopen succeed? Perhaps you could specify the platform and OS and cite the usage of "CON" on this platform with regard to f[re]open? What are the contents of the file "CON"?

[Dark Nemesis]

1) They return 0
2) CON is the console redirecting to the 'file' CON redirects to the console.
3) See above.

[bithub]

If there is no console, you will need to call AllocConsole(). This will create a new console window, and it will automatically initialize stdin, stdout, and stderr handles for the new console. These handles than then be retreived by calling GetStdHandle().

If there is a console already, then I'm not sure as freopen should work the way you have it.

[sand_man]

I think there are pre-compiled binaries that allow this. There is also another way that I can't remember (I don't think its worth troubling over personally). Try searching www.gamedev.net boards, thats where I saw it.