Just Exploring the Creative Side of Code

I wasn’t planning to build anything special.

One day during class, my professor briefly showed us how to change text color in the terminal. It was just a small example — but it caught my eye.

For the first time, I felt like... maybe code doesn’t have to look boring. Maybe it can be creative, colorful, even fun.

That tiny moment made me curious. I started exploring — adding colors, making text bounce, playing sounds, even showing popup boxes.

Eventually, I combined all these experiments into a small project: a console app that introduces who I am.

In this blog, I’m just sharing what I discovered — the features I used, how they work, and how even basic code can feel expressive when you give it a little personality.

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🌟 Feature 1: Colored Text in Terminal

The first thing that caught my attention was colored text. Using the windows.h library, I learned how to control the color of any output.

#include <windows.h>

void setColor(int color) {
    SetConsoleTextAttribute(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), color);
}

Example:

setColor(10); // Light Green
cout << "This is green text!" << endl;

setColor(12); // Light Red
cout << "This is red!" << endl;

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✨ Feature 2: Typing Animation (Text Appearing Slowly)

I wanted my app to feel like it was "talking" — so I created a simple typing effect.

void typeEffect(const string& text, int speed = 40) {
    for (char c : text) {
        cout << c << flush;
        Sleep(speed);
    }
    cout << endl;
}

Usage:

typeEffect("Welcome to my world of code!");

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🎵 Feature 3: Beep Sound Effects

Adding Beep() made my app feel more dynamic. You can control the frequency and duration.

Beep(800, 200); // 800Hz for 200ms
Beep(600, 300);

I used this for transitions and fun interactions.

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🌀 Feature 4: Bouncing Text

This was a fun effect! Using a loop and system("cls"), I created simple text animation that moves.

void bounceText(const string& text, int width = 30, int delay = 80) {
    for (int i = 0; i < width; ++i) {
        system("cls");
        for (int s = 0; s < i; ++s) cout << " ";
        cout << text << flush;
        Sleep(delay);
    }
    cout << endl;
}

Usage:

bounceText("Hello there!");

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💬 Feature 5: Popup Message Boxes

Using MessageBoxA() from windows.h, I displayed welcome and exit messages.

MessageBoxA(0, "Welcome to my app!", "👋 Hello", MB_OK | MB_ICONINFORMATION);

This gave the app a warm, friendly feel.

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🎨 Feature 6: Background + Text Color Combo

I learned that you can combine background and text color:

SetConsoleTextAttribute(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), bgColor * 16 + textColor);

Example:

setColor(14, 1); // Yellow text on Blue background

It helped me organize and highlight different sections.

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👤 Feature 7: User Interaction

I added getline() to make it more interactive.

string name;
cout << "Enter your name: ";
getline(cin, name);
typeEffect("Nice to meet you, " + name + "!");

It added a personal touch.

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🌿 Final Touch: My Console Portfolio App

After exploring these features, I decided to combine them into a personal project — a console portfolio app.

It shows who I am, what I’m learning, and what makes me curious.
It’s not fancy. It’s not perfect. But it reflects me.

try it -

https://github.com/AmritaSagar/ConsolePortfolioAPP/releases/tag/v1.0

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🔗 GitHub Repository

You can find the complete code : https://github.com/AmritaSagar/ConsolePortfolioAPP.git

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🌟 Closing Thoughts

I didn’t set out to build anything serious. I just followed curiosity.

And sometimes, that's enough.

If you're like me — learning, exploring, figuring it out step by step — try something small, personal, and creative.

You might end up enjoying code in a way you never expected.

Thanks for reading!