ConCol

A small Windows console manipulation library I wrote back in 2001 for a Scrabble game assignment. It wraps the Windows Console API to give you easy colour control, cursor positioning, and screen clearing.

I pulled it out of the Scrabble project so it could be used standalone.

What it does

• Set foreground and background colours (16 of each)
• Move cursor to any X,Y position
• Clear the screen or a section of it
• Resize the console window
• Get console dimensions

Usage

Copy concol.hpp and concol.cpp into your project, include the header, and go:

#include "concol.hpp"
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    concol con;
    con.setForeground(LtGreen);
    con.setBackground(bBlue);
    con.ClearScreen();
    con.goto_XY(30, 10);
    std::cout << "Hello World!";
    con.goto_XY(0, 20);
    return 0;
}

Compile with: g++ -std=c++17 -Wall your_program.cpp concol.cpp -o your_program

Colours

Foreground: Black, Blue, Red, Green, Cyan, Magenta, Orange, DkGray, LtGray, LtRed, LtGreen, LtBlue, LtCyan, LtMagenta, Yellow, White

Background: Same names with a b prefix — bBlue, bRed, bLtCyan, etc.

Examples

See the examples/ folder for a few demos — colour display, a simple menu, and a bouncing ball animation.

Limitations

• Windows only (uses Windows Console API)
• 16 colours only (standard console palette)
• Output only — use std::cin or _getch() for input

License

MIT License (c) C.Brown 2001-2026