Thread: help with ReadConsoleInput()

Hi. I'm writing a console program that uses ReadConsoleInput() to receive input from a mouseclick. My problem is that the program gets "stuck" at ReadConsoleInput() when there are no "events". I need some sort of a timeout function that gets out of ReadConsoleInput() after a certain amount of no event time, say 5 seconds. Here's how my program is like:

Code:

for (int i=0; i<=30; i++){

...

while (1){

ReadConsoleInput(hStdin,irInBuf,128, &cNumRead);

if (irInBuf[cNumRead-1].Event.MouseEvent.dwButtonState == FROM_LEFT_1ST_BUTTON_PRESSED ) {
...
break;
}

}

...

}

I tried using WaitForSingleObject(hStdin, 5000L) and putting it after the line ReadConsoleInput(hStdin,irInBuf,128, &cNumRead);
But that only seem to work for the first time around the for loop. I would really appreciate any help I can get on this.

Thank you.

You're on the right track. You can test the console handle before calling ReadConsoleInput:

Code:

if (WaitForSingleObject(hStdin, 5000) == WAIT_OBJECT_0)
{
   // Input (keyboard and/or mouse, depending on console mode) is available...
   ReadConsoleInput(hStdin,irInBuf,128, &cNumRead);
}
else
{
   // WaitForSingleObject returned WAIT_TIMEOUT (or WAIT_FAILED if hStdin is not a valid handle)...
   // Handle the timeout...
}

Alternatively, you can use the GetNumberOfConsoleInputEvents function to poll the console for input events.

This thread should be on the Windows Programming board...

Thank you for the reply! (the program works now) And sorry about posting it on the wrong board!

Hi. I'd like to get rid of a problem with this code (same as before):

Code:

while (1) {

WaitResult = WaitForSingleObject(hStdin, 5000);	

if (WaitResult == WAIT_OBJECT_0)
{
     ReadConsoleInput(hStdin,
		&irInBuf,
		1,
		&cNumRead);
}

else
    break;

if (irInBuf.Event.MouseEvent.dwButtonState == FROM_LEFT_1ST_BUTTON_PRESSED || irInBuf.Event.MouseEvent.dwButtonState == RIGHTMOST_BUTTON_PRESSED){
...
						
}
}

The code works fine if I don't move the mouse. My problem is that WaitForSingleObject doesn't time out after 5 seconds if I move the mouse around. Is there a way around it? I am only interested in mouseclicks, so it would be great if I can somehow disable mouse movements from being mouse events.
Thank you.