Message pump in a console application

Question

I have a fairly simple console application written in .NET. Sometimes the application is run in batch mode without an operator, other times it is run \"out of pocket\". If i

Answer 1

You could start a thread that reads key presses in the background. Add the keys to a blocking queue and wait in the main thread for the queue to be filled, e.g.

var queue = new BlockingCollection();

new Thread(() =>
{
    while (true) queue.Add(Console.ReadKey(true));
})
{ IsBackground = true }.Start();


Console.Write("Welcome! Please press a key: ");

ConsoleKeyInfo cki;

if (queue.TryTake(out cki, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10))) //wait for up to 10 seconds
{
    Console.WriteLine();
    Console.WriteLine("You pressed '{0}'", cki.Key);
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine();
    Console.WriteLine("You did not press a key");
}

Both the background thread and the main thread will sleep (utilize 0% processor time) while they're waiting for ReadKey and TryTake to return respectively.