Input a string in graphics mode?

I'm not writing a specific program using this at the moment, but I'm just trying to build up my knowledge database before jumping into game programming and such. My question is:

How would I input a string of more than one character in graphics mode?

I know cin and gets() works in graphics mode, but it displays dos style text and inputs over the 80x25 text mode grid rather than at specific X Y coordinates. I considered looping getch() until the enter key is pressed and having each key printed out using outtextxy() then formatting them into one string, but that seems very unnecessary. If anyone knows a better way, I would appreciate any form of a response.

(unless that response is calling me stupid :D )

I wrote this code... this works on BGI..

Code:

---

char* gettextxy(int x1,int y1,byte colorback = 0,
                byte colorfont = 15, byte limit = 0)
{
 byte x=0;
 int i=0;
 char in[2];
 in[0]=' ';
 in[1]='\0';
 char *texto;

 int originalcolor = getcolor();

 while(*in!=(char)13)
 {
  in[0]=getch();
  if(in[0]==(char)13) break;
    else
    if(in[0]==(char)8)
    {
      x--;
      i-=7;
      setcolor(colorback);
      in[0]=texto[x];
      outtextxy(x1+i,y1,in);
    }
    else
    {
    if ((x < limit) || (limit == 0))
      {
        setcolor(colorfont);
        outtextxy(x1+i,y1,in);
        i+=7;
        texto[x]=in[0];
        x++;
      }
    }
 }
 setcolor(originalcolor);
 texto[x]='\0';
 return(texto);
}

---

I forgot this..

typedef unsigned char byte;

this is the type declaration for byte...

Yeah I figured that last part out myself. Thanks for the code, that worked.