Opening a Python thread in a new console window
I agree with @stark a GUI is the way.
Purely for illustration here's a not recommended non-GUI way that shows how to do it using a thread, a subprocess, and a named pipe as IPC.
There are two scripts:
entry.py
: accept commands from a user, do something with the command, pass it to the named pipe given at the command-line:#!/usr/bin/env python import sys print 'entry console' with open(sys.argv[1], 'w') as file: for command in iter(lambda: raw_input('>>> '), ''): print ''.join(reversed(command)) # do something with it print >>file, command # pass the command to view window file.flush()
view.py
: Launch the entry console, print constant updates in a thread, accept input from the named pipe and pass it to the updates thread:#!/usr/bin/env python import os import subprocess import sys import tempfile from Queue import Queue, Empty from threading import Thread def launch_entry_console(named_pipe): if os.name == 'nt': # or use sys.platform for more specific names console = ['cmd.exe', '/c'] # or something else: console = ['xterm', '-e'] # specify your favorite terminal # emulator here cmd = ['python', 'entry.py', named_pipe] return subprocess.Popen(console + cmd) def print_updates(queue): value = queue.get() # wait until value is available msg = "" while True: for c in "/-\|": minwidth = len(msg) # make sure previous output is overwritten msg = "\r%s %s" % (c, value) sys.stdout.write(msg.ljust(minwidth)) sys.stdout.flush() try: value = queue.get(timeout=.1) # update value print except Empty: pass print 'view console' # launch updates thread q = Queue(maxsize=1) # use queue to communicate with the thread t = Thread(target=print_updates, args=(q,)) t.daemon = True # die with the program t.start() # create named pipe to communicate with the entry console dirname = tempfile.mkdtemp() named_pipe = os.path.join(dirname, 'named_pipe') os.mkfifo(named_pipe) #note: there should be an analog on Windows try: p = launch_entry_console(named_pipe) # accept input from the entry console with open(named_pipe) as file: for line in iter(file.readline, ''): # pass it to 'print_updates' thread q.put(line.strip()) # block until the value is retrieved p.wait() finally: os.unlink(named_pipe) os.rmdir(dirname)
To try it, run:
$ python view.py
Rather than use a console or terminal window, re-examine your problem. What you are trying to do is create a GUI. There are a number of cross-platform toolkits including Wx and Tkinter that have widgets to do exactly what you want. A text box for output and an entry widget for reading keyboard input. Plus you can wrap them in a nice frame with titles, help, open/save/close, etc.