Thread: gotoxy API call in MS VC++, pauses?!?!

i was dissapointed when i found that MS visual c++ doesn't have a built in gotoxy function. how is someone supposed to manipulate the console without it?

anyway, i found the API call which uses windows.h header, but it is weird, i have this code:

Code:

void gotoxy(int x, int y) 
{ 
HANDLE hConsoleOutput; 
COORD dwCursorPosition; 

dwCursorPosition.X = x; 
dwCursorPosition.Y = y; 
hConsoleOutput = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE); 
SetConsoleCursorPosition(hConsoleOutput,dwCursorPosition); 
}

void main()
{
	gotoxy(5,5);
	cout << "Hello there!";
}

but before it writes hello there, it moves the cursor to 5,5 and it just sits there blinking, until i press a key, then it continues.

why does this happen? why did they have to make it so hard on people?

any ideas would be nice

try putting <<endl after "hello there"

you beauty

it works fine now thanks

another thing
any idea how to hide the flashing cursor?

I want to be able to set the visibility of the cursor in the console, so i looked in wincon.h, where i had previously found "SetConsoleCursorPosition()". This is what i found:

Code:

SetConsoleCursorInfo(
    HANDLE hConsoleOutput,
    CONST CONSOLE_CURSOR_INFO *lpConsoleCursorInfo
    );

and the structure earlier on:

Code:

typedef struct _CONSOLE_CURSOR_INFO {
    DWORD  dwSize;
    BOOL   bVisible;
} CONSOLE_CURSOR_INFO, *PCONSOLE_CURSOR_INFO;

i tried to use this in pretty much the same way as SetConsoleCursorPosition(), which goes like this:

Code:

void gotoxy(int x, int y) 
{ 
HANDLE hConsoleOutput; 
COORD dwCursorPosition; 

dwCursorPosition.X = x; 
dwCursorPosition.Y = y; 
hConsoleOutput = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE); 
SetConsoleCursorPosition(hConsoleOutput,dwCursorPosition); 
}

My code for setting the visibility of the cursor was this:

Code:

void setCursor(bool visible)
{
HANDLE hConsoleOutput; 
CONST CONSOLE_CURSOR_INFO *lpConsoleCursorInfo.bVisible=visible;

hConsoleOutput = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE); 
SetConsoleCursorInfo(hConsoleOutput,lpConsoleCursorInfo);
}

It did NOT work.

if anyone knows about the Windows API and how to use it, can you give us a hand?

Code:

void setcursor(bool visible, DWORD size)
{
	if(size == 0)
	{
		size = 20;	// default cursor size
	}
	HANDLE hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
	CONSOLE_CURSOR_INFO lpCursor;	
	lpCursor.bVisible = visible;
	lpCursor.dwSize = size;
	SetConsoleCursorInfo(hConsole,&lpCursor);
}

The SetConsoleCursorInfo function doesn't like it if you don't assign a cursor size.

thanks that worked fine

but why did you pass &lpCursor by reference?

(i hope im right in remembering that & means ByRef

did you do vb before c++?

when you declared lpConsoleCursorInfo, you made it a pointer by putting an asterisk(*) in front of it. this means that lpConsoleCursorInfo just contains a reference to memory address for the value. since you have to pass a reference to the function, and i didn't create a pointer, i had to use the ampersand(&) prefix to pass a reference to the function.

i hope that was clear.