Getting Started with Smart Console Applications

Introduction

Smart console applications are a little bit different from the conventional ones. In order to input data, the user first presses the Execute button:

The edit box that is then revealed accepts the input:

Our first example shows how you can use an incrementing variable to match each input with the appropriate code to process it. The other examples show how you can nest routines inside the ProcessCommand and/or PopulateConsole procedures, which is useful when adapting code from existing console programs.

An example using different types of input

unit uInputDemo;

interface

uses
  // w3system, w3scroll, w3console, w3components, w3application, w3consoleapp, w3lists;
  System.Types, System.Lists, SmartCL.System, SmartCL.Scroll, SmartCL.Console,
  SmartCL.Components, SmartCL.Application, SmartCL.ConsoleApp;
type
  TApplication = Class(TW3CustomConsoleApplication)
  private
    i : integer := 0;
  protected
    procedure PopulateConsole; override;
    procedure ProcessCommand(aCommand: string); override;
  end;

implementation

procedure TApplication.PopulateConsole;
begin
  Console.WriteLn('Press the Execute button (or type Tab then Enter) to answer questions.');
  Console.WriteLn('');
  Console.WriteLn('What is your name?');
end;

procedure TApplication.ProcessCommand(aCommand: string);
var
  age : integer;
begin
  inc(i);
  case i of
  1 : begin
        Console.writeln('Hello, ' + aCommand + '!');
        Console.writeln('How old are you?');
      end;
  2 : begin
        age := StrToInt(aCommand);
        Console.writeln ('Next year you will be ' + IntToStr(age + 1) + '.');
      end;
  end;
end;

end.

An example using a nested function

This example shows how you can use code from an existing, conventional console application (in this case from our tutorial on recursion).

unit uFactorialDemo;

interface

uses
  // w3system, w3scroll, w3console, w3components, w3application, w3consoleapp, w3lists;
  System.Types, System.Lists, SmartCL.System, SmartCL.Scroll, SmartCL.Console,
  SmartCL.Components, SmartCL.Application, SmartCL.ConsoleApp;
type
  TApplication = class(TW3CustomConsoleApplication)
  private
  protected
    procedure PopulateConsole; override;
    procedure ProcessCommand(aCommand: string); override;
  end;

implementation

procedure TApplication.PopulateConsole;
begin
  Console.WriteLn('Please enter an integer from 0 to 12. ');
end;

procedure TApplication.ProcessCommand(aCommand: string);
var
  Num : integer;

function Factorial(i : integer) : integer;
begin
  if i = 0 then
    result := 1
  else
    result := i * Factorial(i - 1);
end;

begin
  Num := StrToInt(aCommand);
  Console.WriteLn(IntToStr(Num) + '! = ' + IntToStr(Factorial(Num)));
  Console.WriteLn('Please enter an integer from 0 to 12. ');
end;

end.

This screenshot shows the entry of the fourth item of data.

An example with no input

This example uses logic from one of our TINY demonstrations. It draws a Pascal triangle as shown in this web page. Note that we add non-breaking spaces ( ) to separate values. (Otherwise, the HTML will show consecutive space characters as a single space). The Console has a WriteLn method but not a Write method, so we build up each current line before writing.

unit uPasTri;

interface

uses
  // w3system, w3scroll, w3console, w3components, w3application, w3consoleapp, w3lists;
  System.Types, System.Lists, SmartCL.System, SmartCL.Scroll, SmartCL.Console,
  SmartCL.Components, SmartCL.Application, SmartCL.ConsoleApp;
type
  TApplication = class(TW3CustomConsoleApplication)
  protected
    procedure PopulateConsole; override;
  end;

implementation

procedure TApplication.PopulateConsole;
var
  MAX, Result, n, k, i, Coeff, Divisor : integer;
  CurrentLine : string;

{ Factorial by recursion, leaving the factorial in Result. }
function Fact(Num : integer) : integer;
begin
  if Num = 0 then
    Result := 1
  else
    begin
      Result := Fact(Num - 1);
      Result := Result * Num;
    end;
end;

{ Recursive procedure for coefficient suggested by Rolfe }
function Coefficient(n, k : integer): integer;
begin
  if (k = 0) or (k = n) then
    Result := 1
  else
    begin
      Result := Coefficient(n - 1, k - 1) * n div k;
   end;
end;

begin
  MAX := 20;
  CurrentLine := '';
  Console.writeLn('');
  for n := 0 to MAX do
    begin
      for k := 0 to n do
        begin
          if (k = 0) or (k = n) then
            Coeff := 1
          else
            Coeff := Coefficient(n, k);
          CurrentLine := CurrentLine + IntToStr(Coeff) + ' ';
          Divisor := 100000;
          while Divisor >= 10 do
            begin
              if Coeff div Divisor < 1 then
                CurrentLine := CurrentLine + '&nbsp;';
              Divisor := Divisor div 10;
            end;
        end;
      Console.writeLn(CurrentLine);
      CurrentLine := '';
    end;
  Console.writeLn('');
end;

end.

Other Examples of Console Applications

We have many examples of console programs generated from Blockly blocks using our BlocklyToSmartPascal online application. This would be a good starting point for those of you without much experience in text-based programming.

See also our demonstrations of a linear search and a binary search.