Console animations

Question

I just want to know how to create simple animations like blinking, moving stuffs on C# console applications. Is there any special method for this?

Answer 1

Here is my spinner. The purpose of it is to have a program do some work while the spinner displays to the user that something is actually happening:

  public class Spinner : IDisposable
  {
     private const string Sequence = @"/-\|";
     private int counter = 0;
     private readonly int left;
     private readonly int top;
     private readonly int delay;
     private bool active;
     private readonly Thread thread;

     public Spinner(int left, int top, int delay = 100)
     {
        this.left = left;
        this.top = top;
        this.delay = delay;
        thread = new Thread(Spin);
     }

     public void Start()
     {
        active = true;
        if (!thread.IsAlive)
           thread.Start();
     }

     public void Stop()
     {
        active = false;
        Draw(' ');
     }

     private void Spin()
     {
        while (active)
        {
           Turn();
           Thread.Sleep(delay);
        }
     }

     private void Draw(char c)
     {
        Console.SetCursorPosition(left, top);
        Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;
        Console.Write(c);
     }

     private void Turn()
     {
        Draw(Sequence[++counter % Sequence.Length]);
     }

     public void Dispose()
     {
        Stop();
     }
  }

And you use the class like this:

     var spinner = new Spinner(10, 10);

     spinner.Start();

     // Do your work here instead of sleeping...
     Thread.Sleep(10000);

     spinner.Stop();