Create window console inside main win32 window

Question

I have a win32 application that need to open a console like the games when tilde is pressed. I tought that the best solution is to use the CreateWindow function. Is this right?

Answer 1

It's often tempting to use a console window in your app (using AllocConsole), but it is definitely NOT a standard reusable Windows control. It has a lot of special behaviors and features which make it unique from a typical window.

For this reason, I would agree with your instinct, against using a true 'Console' window. Make your own window with a text editor in it, as you would develop any other UI component like a HUD.

Whether you should use CreateWindow is hard to say: how are you doing the rest of your GUI? DirectX? GDI? Some toolkit? Are you using other standard windows controls?