About Character Mode Applications

• 07/12/2017
• 2 minutes to read
• Contributors
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Character mode (or "command-line") applications:

1. [Optionally] Read data from standard input (stdin)
2. Do "work"
3. [Optionally] Write data to standard output (stdout) or standard error (stderr)

Character mode applications communicate with the end-user through a "console" (or "terminal") application. A console converts user input from keyboard, mouse, touch-screen, pen, etc., and send it to a character mode application's stdin. A console may also display a character mode application's text output on the user's screen.

In Windows, the console is built-in and provides a rich API through which character mode applications can interact with the user.

• Consoles
• Input and Output Methods
• Console Code Pages
• Console Control Handlers
• Console Aliases
• Console Buffer Security and Access Rights
• Console Application Issues