Need to create an edit control that acts like a terminal window - winforms

Question

I need to create an edit control that takes each line, as entered, and goes off and does an action according to what was entered. I don't want the user to be able to delete what they typed into the box via their mouse and the delete key. It would look something like this:
Power On (user entered this)
Power: On Level:50 (what the power on command returned)
Laser On (user entered this )
Laser: On Power:60 ( what the command returned)
So I don't want them to go back and delete the lines already entered, they can just keep appending items and sending off these commands. Any ideas on how to accomplish this? Thanks.

Answer 1

I think your best bet would be creating a hybrid UserControl consisting of 2 Textbox's one which is readonly the other being writable. Enter your data in the one, append it to the other when the enter key is pressed, then append the response. Since you haven't stated a programming language here is an example in vb.net.
Public Class UserControl1
Private Sub TextBox2_KeyDown(sender As Object, e As KeyEventArgs) Handles TextBox2.KeyDown
If e.KeyCode = Keys.Enter Then
ScrollToEnd(TextBox1)
TextBox1.Text += TextBox2.Text + vbCrLf
TextBox1.Text += GetResponse(TextBox2.Text) + vbCrLf
TextBox2.Text = ""
ScrollToEnd(TextBox1)
e.SuppressKeyPress = True
End If
End Sub
Private Sub ScrollToEnd(tb As TextBox)
tb.SelectionStart = tb.TextLength
tb.ScrollToCaret()
End Sub
Private Function GetResponse(command As String) As String
Select Case command
Case "Power On"
Return "On Level: 50"
Case "Laser On"
Return "Laser: On Power:60"
Case Else
Return "I do not understand"
End Select
End Function
End Class
UserControl1.Designer.VB's InitializeComponent Method (I am only putting this in so you can see the properties of my Controls)
Private Sub InitializeComponent()
Me.TextBox1 = New System.Windows.Forms.TextBox()
Me.TextBox2 = New System.Windows.Forms.TextBox()
Me.TableLayoutPanel1 = New System.Windows.Forms.TableLayoutPanel()
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.SuspendLayout()
Me.SuspendLayout()
'
'TextBox1
'
Me.TextBox1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Black
Me.TextBox1.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.None
Me.TextBox1.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill
Me.TextBox1.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Lime
Me.TextBox1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(3, 3)
Me.TextBox1.Multiline = True
Me.TextBox1.Name = "TextBox1"
Me.TextBox1.ReadOnly = True
Me.TextBox1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(253, 181)
Me.TextBox1.TabIndex = 0
Me.TextBox1.TabStop = False
'
'TextBox2
'
Me.TextBox2.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Black
Me.TextBox2.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.None
Me.TextBox2.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill
Me.TextBox2.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Lime
Me.TextBox2.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(3, 190)
Me.TextBox2.Name = "TextBox2"
Me.TextBox2.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(253, 17)
Me.TextBox2.TabIndex = 1
'
'TableLayoutPanel1
'
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Black
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.ColumnCount = 1
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.ColumnStyles.Add(New System.Windows.Forms.ColumnStyle(System.Windows.Forms.SizeType.Percent, 50.0!))
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.Controls.Add(Me.TextBox1, 0, 0)
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.Controls.Add(Me.TextBox2, 0, 1)
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(0, 0)
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.Name = "TableLayoutPanel1"
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.RowCount = 2
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.RowStyles.Add(New System.Windows.Forms.RowStyle(System.Windows.Forms.SizeType.Percent, 89.09953!))
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.RowStyles.Add(New System.Windows.Forms.RowStyle(System.Windows.Forms.SizeType.Percent, 10.90047!))
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(259, 211)
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.TabIndex = 2
'
'UserControl1
'
Me.AutoScaleDimensions = New System.Drawing.SizeF(7.0!, 16.0!)
Me.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font
Me.Controls.Add(Me.TableLayoutPanel1)
Me.Name = "UserControl1"
Me.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(259, 211)
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.ResumeLayout(False)
Me.TableLayoutPanel1.PerformLayout()
Me.ResumeLayout(False)
End Sub