jQuery get textarea text

Why would you want to convert key strokes to text? Add a button that sends the text inside the textarea to the server when clicked. You can get the text using the value attribute as the poster before has pointed out, or using jQuery's API:

$('input#mybutton').click(function() {
    var text = $('textarea#mytextarea').val();
    //send to server and process response
});

Where it is often the text function you use (e.g. in divs etc) then for text area it is val

get:

$('#myTextBox').val();

set:

$('#myTextBox').val('new value');

Normally, it's the value property

testArea.value

Or is there something I'm missing in what you need?

You should have a div that just contains the console messages, that is, previous commands and their output. And underneath put an input or textarea that just holds the command you are typing.

-------------------------------
| consle output ...           |
| more output                 |
| prevous commands and data   |
-------------------------------
> This is an input box.

That way you just send the value of the input box to the server for processing, and append the result to the console messages div.