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<ConsoleKeyInfo>();

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.

Answer 2

You could use the event handling mechanism of .NET. Reposting from here.

Imports System.Threading.Thread

Module Module1
    Private Second As Integer = 1
    Private Tick As New Timers.Timer(1000)

    Sub Main()

        AddHandler tick.Elapsed, AddressOf Ticker 'Event for the timer tick

        Dim NewThread As System.Threading.Thread = New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf LookForKeyPress) 'New thread to check for key press
        NewThread.Start() 'Start thread

        Console.WriteLine("Now awaiting key presses...")
        tick.Enabled = True 'Enable the timer
    End Sub

    Private Sub Ticker()
        'every tick this sub is called and the seconds are displayed till a key is pressed
        Console.WriteLine(Second)
        Second += 1

    End Sub

    Private Sub LookForKeyPress()

        While True
            Dim k As ConsoleKeyInfo = Console.ReadKey() 'read for a key press
            If Not k.Key.ToString.Length <= 0 Then 'check the length of the key string pressed, mainly because the key in this case will be apart of the system.consolekey
                Console.WriteLine(Environment.NewLine & "Key Pressed: " & k.Key.ToString) 'display the key pressed
                Second = 1 'restart the timer
            End If
        End While

    End Sub

End Module

Hope I helped!