remarknibor wrote:
> I'm using Visual C++ 2005 in Windows, and I'm writing a console
> application to run from the command prompt.
> I was just wondering if it was possible to have my program open up
> Notepad at a certain point so that users could write an essay in it,
> and then have my program save the file to a specified location after a
> certain amount of time has passed and close Notepad again. Basically,
> I'd like to use Notepad for the essay writing capabilities rather than
> the command prompt, but would like complete control over when it
> opens/closes and where it saves the current writing to.
> If this is possible, could you explain how it can be done? (It doesn't
> have to be Notepad, rather it could be any basic text editor.
> So far, all I've found is that I can open Notepad up from my code
> using:
> system("notepad.exe");
>
> Thanks in advance.
What you want to do is non-ANSI Standard (but so is anything else
involving timed user input). You are going to have to deviate from
Standard C++ and delve into the Windows API to do what you want. Search
MSDN Library for the following APIs:
CreateProcess()
WaitForSingleObject()
GetForegroundWindow()
GetWindowThreadProcessId()
keybd_event()
You'll use them in that specific order. I recommend sending Ctrl+S (or
Alt+F and then S) and then Alt+F4 (or Alt+F and then X) to force the
app. to exit. You should start Notepad with a file to load (create an
empty file). WaitForSingleObject() will keep the CPU at 0% while
waiting for the time to run out OR the person exits Notepad (whichever
comes first).
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