windows console app

[QUantumAnenome]

Is there a way a console app can query if it was run from inside a DOS box as opposed to being double clicked?

The reason is that I'm tired of putting getch() at the end of all my quick test programs to avoid the printed answers from not being seen. If I open a DOS box and run the app from there, no problems. But being lazy, if I double click to run it, it runs, prints out info, and closes. It would be nice to be able to detect and only put in the getch() if the app was double clicked.

Thanks!

[fp_unit]

I think it would be more trouble than its worth

Just get a good IDE and run your programs from inside it.

[DJMaze]

the compiled binary has 2 sections in the beginning.
MZ and PE the issue is that the PE code is the windows executable and MZ the dos.

If you run the app thru dos only the MZ gets executed and requests for windows "This program cannot be run in DOS mode."

There's only one way to execute PE code and that is thru the internal START function.
Both the cmd and gui use this to execute a program but it does make a difference in some cases of the gui where you can check which handle executed it.

[DJMaze]

Update: On Windows NT however you can see if the application is called from a console window or the GUI.

#include <windows.h>
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
                             LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow) {

    LPWSTR *szArglist;
    int nArgs;
    int i;

    szArglist = CommandLineToArgvW(GetCommandLineW(), &nArgs);
    if (szArglist != NULL)
    {
        for (i=0; i<nArgs; i++) {
            if (szArglist[i] == "WIN") {
                print("We have a gui\n");
                LocalFree(szArglist);
                return 0;
            }
        }
    }
    print("We have a console\n");

    // Free memory allocated for CommandLineToArgvW arguments.
    LocalFree(szArglist);

    return 0;
}

[DJMaze]

here's another way to go in Windows

int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hInstance,
                     HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
                     LPSTR lpCmdLine,
                     int nCmdShow)
{
// GUI app
}

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
// console app
}