How to Create a C# App That Decides Itself Whether to Show as a Console or Windowed App

How do I create a C# app that decides itself whether to show as a console or windowed app?

Make the app a regular windows app, and create a console on the fly if needed.

More details at this link (code below from there)

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsApplication1 {
  static class Program {
    [STAThread]
    static void Main(string[] args) {
      if (args.Length > 0) {
        // Command line given, display console
        if ( !AttachConsole(-1) ) { // Attach to an parent process console
           AllocConsole(); // Alloc a new console
        }

        ConsoleMain(args);
      }
      else {
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
        Application.Run(new Form1());
      }
    }
    private static void ConsoleMain(string[] args) {
      Console.WriteLine("Command line = {0}", Environment.CommandLine);
      for (int ix = 0; ix < args.Length; ++ix)
        Console.WriteLine("Argument{0} = {1}", ix + 1, args[ix]);
      Console.ReadLine();
    }

    [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern bool AllocConsole();

    [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern bool AttachConsole(int pid);

  }
}

How do I create a C# app that decides itself whether to show as a console or windowed app?

Make the app a regular windows app, and create a console on the fly if needed.

More details at this link (code below from there)

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsApplication1 {
  static class Program {
    [STAThread]
    static void Main(string[] args) {
      if (args.Length > 0) {
        // Command line given, display console
        if ( !AttachConsole(-1) ) { // Attach to an parent process console
           AllocConsole(); // Alloc a new console
        }

        ConsoleMain(args);
      }
      else {
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
        Application.Run(new Form1());
      }
    }
    private static void ConsoleMain(string[] args) {
      Console.WriteLine("Command line = {0}", Environment.CommandLine);
      for (int ix = 0; ix < args.Length; ++ix)
        Console.WriteLine("Argument{0} = {1}", ix + 1, args[ix]);
      Console.ReadLine();
    }

    [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern bool AllocConsole();

    [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern bool AttachConsole(int pid);

  }
}

Developing C# Visual Studio .exes similar to Java

Theres no special thing if you want to open a WPF-window (even in a Console Project).

You can simply add a WPF Form using the Visual Studio Utilities (New/Window or something like this).

To open your window, you have two possibilities:

The first one is to open a dialog modal (the code doesn't continue until the form ist closed)

MyWindow window = new MyWindow();
window.ShowModal();

The second solution is open the window without waiting for the dialog to close(some kind like asynchronous)

MyWindow window = new MyWindow();
window.Show();

You can find further information on this article..

Enjoy programming in C# instead of Java.

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