Most console device processing involves a window, but there are functions and special commands that may be used without a window. To use the console device without a window, you call opendevice() with the console unit CONU_LIBRARY. The console device functions are cdinputhandler() and rawkeyconvert(); they may only be used with the CONU_LIBRARY console unit. The console device commands which do not require a window are cd_askdefaultkeymap and cd_setdefaultkeymap; they be used with any console unit. the advantage of using the commands with the CONU_LIBRARY unit is the lack of overhead required for CONU_LIBRARY because it doesn't require a window. To use the functions requires the following steps: * Declare the console device base address variable ConsoleDevice in the global data area. * Declare storage for an I/O request of type iostdreq. * Open the console device with CONU_LIBRARY set as the console unit. * Set the console device base address variable to point to the device library vector which is returned in io_Device. * Call the console device function(s). * Close the console device when you are finished. #include <devices/conunit.h> struct ConsoleDevice *ConsoleDevice; /* declare device base address */ struct IOStdReq ConsIO= {0}; /* I/O request */ main() /* Open the device with CONU_LIBRARY for function use */ if (0 == OpenDevice("console.device",CONU_LIBRARY, (struct IORequest *)&ConsIO,0) ) { /* Set the base address variable to the device library vector */ ConsoleDevice = (struct ConsoleDevice *)ConsIO.io_Device; . . (console device functions would be called here) . CloseDevice(ConsIO); } The code fragment shows only the steps outlined above, it is not complete in any sense of the word. For a complete example of using a console device function, see the rawkey.c code example in the "intuition: mouse and keyboard" chapter of the amiga rom kernel reference Manual: Libraries. The example uses the rawkeyconvert() function. To use the commands with the CONU_LIBRARY console unit, you follow the same steps that were outlined in the opening the console device section of this chapter. struct MsgPort *ConsoleMP; /* pointer to our message port */ struct IOStdReq *ConsoleIO; /* pointer to our I/O request */ struct KeyMap *keymap; /* pointer to keymap */ /* Create the message port */ if (ConsoleMP=CreateMsgPort()) { /* Create the I/O request */ if (ConsoleIO = CreateIORequest(ConsoleMP,sizeof(struct IOStdReq))) { /* Open the Console device */ if (OpenDevice("console.device",CONU_LIBRARY, (struct IORequest *)ConsoleIO,0L)) /* Inform user that it could not be opened */ printf("Error: console.device did not open\n"); else { /* Allocate memory for the keymap */ if (keymap = (struct KeyMap *) AllocMem(sizeof(struct KeyMap),MEMF_PUBLIC | MEMF_CLEAR)) { /* device opened, send CD_ASKKEYMAP command to it */ ConsoleIO->io_Length = sizeof(struct KeyMap); ConsoleIO->io_Data = (APTR)keymap; /* where to put it */ ConsoleIO->io_Command = CD_ASKKEYMAP; DoIO((struct IORequest *)ConsoleIO)) } CloseDevice(ConsIO); } Again, as in the previous code fragment, this is not complete (that's why it's a fragment!) and you should only use it as a guide.