Can't exit an infinite loop

Question

My program starts by entering any key,then the user sees a color changing text "Welcome to my program". Now, the user should hit any key to continue, but he can't quit the infinite loop that is changing the color of text. Let me show you the code for a better understanding.

HANDLE color=GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
cout<<"Press any key to start...";
int stop=getchar();
while(stop){
    for(i=10;i<=15;i++){
        cout <<("\n\t\t\t\t\t Welcome to my program\n");
        SetConsoleTextAttribute(color,i);
        Sleep(100);
        system("cls");
    }
}

Answer 1

This would be a solution for you (comments included)

#include <iostream>
#include <Windows.h>
#include <thread>

int main()
{
    HANDLE color = GetStdHandle( STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE );
    std::cout << "Press any key to start...";
    bool stop = false; // use a Boolean instead of int 
    // doesn't really matter what the input is, so use getchar().
    // Note, this is really just "enter". You can modify if you expect user to 
    //   hit multiple keys before hitting enter
    getchar(); 

    // This line here will start a new thread which will wait for the user to hit enter
    std::thread getInput = std::thread( [&stop] { getchar(); stop = true; } );
    // Loop stays the same (except I inverse the "stop" variable to make more sense)
    while ( !stop ) {
        for ( int i = 10; i <= 15; i++ ) {
            std::cout << ( "\n\t\t\t\t\t Welcome to my program\n" );
            SetConsoleTextAttribute( color, i );
            Sleep( 100 );
            system( "cls" );
        }
    }
}