kialmur wrote: Is there no way that I can just open a console and use cout/cin? Sure, if you are creating a simple console application. However, since you have a GUI application, the rules change. kialmur wrote: seems like quite a complex process just to write to a console. So just wrap it all up into a nice little class, and whenever you want something to be displayed in a console window, instantiate your class, and invoke a few methods. You could even skip the class part, and just put it all in a function (or three). Just call the functions whenever you want something to be displayed in a console window. "Money talks. When my money starts to talk, I get a bill to shut it up." - Frank "Judge not by the eye but by the heart." - Native American Proverb

Try Application.DoEvents()

Thanks. I cannot simply reinstantiate a new controller each time, but the Singleton design works for me. kialmur

Generally speaking, I think constructors should be rather lightweight and only initialize variables. This is mostly because constructors can not return a status. Customary practice dictates that an exception is thrown on failure and that may not always be the prefered option. I prefer that any 'heavy lifting' be done in specific methods. Regarding constructors failing : http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/exceptions.html#faq-17.2[^] BTW - not that they're the final authority or anything, I just found them first in my search. :)

That syntax is only valid (AFAICT) in a constructor. The syntax is used to initialise any base classes, and any members. By the time you enter the function, all external parameters need to have been initialized (base classes, members, and global variables). Although we already have syntax to initialise global variables, this is the only syntax available to initialise members and base classes.

kialmur wrote: The error is: error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "long __cdecl sendChipOffset(long,long,long)" (?sendChipOffset@@YAJJJJ@Z) This is a name-mangling issue. kialmur wrote: Is that correct? Yes. "Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed." - Mark Twain "There is no death, only a change of worlds." - Native American Proverb