🚀 go-pugleaf

Helmut Giese wrote:

>a console mode app of mine needs to periodically perform some action
>while still being able to react to input from the user.
>I thought that the combination of getting the handle to the input
>console and then doing a WaitForSingleObject with a suitable timeout
>would accomplish what I need - but it doesn't work.

Have you tried ResetEvent( inHdl ) ?
Maybe FlushConsoleInputBuffer( inHdl ) ?

The docs for ReadConsole don't mention waiting, but the docs for
ReadConsoleInput do. You might try that function.

My own code uses polling with a Sleep( 10 ) because I also check for
UDP messages. Several copies of the program can run with no
notiiceable delays.

I also allow mouse clicks which brings in mouse movements as well
(which I ignore).
	GetNumberOfConsoleInputEvents( stdin, &written );
	if( 0 == written )
	{	++WaitCounter;
		if( WaitCounter > 100 )
		{	WaitCounter = 0;
			BackgroundProcess();
		}else{
			Sleep( 10 );
		};
	}else{
		ReadConsoleInput( stdin, &input_record, 1, &written );
		// if you want background to only fire after
		// 1 second of inactivity
		WaitCounter = 0;
	};
See Reading Input Buffer Events
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms685035.aspx

  -  -  -  -

In any case, the usual method these days is to use threads.
Main() could create a CancelEvent, then start the background thread.
When main() wants to exit, it signals CancelEvent to terminate the
background thread.
Main() could also set a global boolean whenever it processes a
keystroke.

The background thread could WaitForSingleObject on the CancelEvent,
and process during WAIT_TIMEOUT, exiting on WAIT_OBJECT_0.

while( 1 )
{	if( WAIT_OBJECT_0 == WaitForSingleObject( CancelEvent, 1000) )
		break;
	if( GlobalKeyPressed )
	{	// key was pressed while we slept
		GlobalKeyPressed = false;
	}else{
		BackgroundProcess();
	};
};

This has the advantage of being responsive even when the background
thread is busy.

Whichever thread method you use, you would also want to add
	SetConsoleCtrlHandler( &CtrlHandler, TRUE);
to catch the Big Red X and other app closers so you can signal the
thread to exit nicely.