Opening a Python thread in a new console window

I agree with @stark a GUI is the way.

Purely for illustration here's a not recommended non-GUI way that shows how to do it using a thread, a subprocess, and a named pipe as IPC.

There are two scripts:

  • entry.py: accept commands from a user, do something with the command, pass it to the named pipe given at the command-line:

    #!/usr/bin/env python
    import sys
    
    print 'entry console'
    with open(sys.argv[1], 'w') as file:
        for command in iter(lambda: raw_input('>>> '), ''):
            print ''.join(reversed(command)) # do something with it
            print >>file, command # pass the command to view window
            file.flush()
    
  • view.py: Launch the entry console, print constant updates in a thread, accept input from the named pipe and pass it to the updates thread:

    #!/usr/bin/env python
    import os
    import subprocess
    import sys
    import tempfile
    from Queue import Queue, Empty
    from threading import Thread
    
    def launch_entry_console(named_pipe):
        if os.name == 'nt': # or use sys.platform for more specific names
            console = ['cmd.exe', '/c'] # or something
        else:
            console = ['xterm', '-e'] # specify your favorite terminal
                                      # emulator here
    
        cmd = ['python', 'entry.py', named_pipe]
        return subprocess.Popen(console + cmd)
    
    def print_updates(queue):
        value = queue.get() # wait until value is available
    
        msg = ""
        while True:
            for c in "/-\|":
                minwidth = len(msg) # make sure previous output is overwritten
                msg = "\r%s %s" % (c, value)
                sys.stdout.write(msg.ljust(minwidth))
                sys.stdout.flush()
    
                try:
                    value = queue.get(timeout=.1) # update value
                    print
                except Empty:
                    pass
    
    print 'view console'
    # launch updates thread
    q = Queue(maxsize=1) # use queue to communicate with the thread
    t = Thread(target=print_updates, args=(q,))
    t.daemon = True # die with the program
    t.start()
    
    # create named pipe to communicate with the entry console
    dirname = tempfile.mkdtemp()
    named_pipe = os.path.join(dirname, 'named_pipe')
    os.mkfifo(named_pipe) #note: there should be an analog on Windows
    try:
        p = launch_entry_console(named_pipe)
        # accept input from the entry console
        with open(named_pipe) as file:
            for line in iter(file.readline, ''):
                # pass it to 'print_updates' thread
                q.put(line.strip()) # block until the value is retrieved
        p.wait()
    finally:
        os.unlink(named_pipe)
        os.rmdir(dirname)
    

To try it, run:

$ python view.py

Rather than use a console or terminal window, re-examine your problem. What you are trying to do is create a GUI. There are a number of cross-platform toolkits including Wx and Tkinter that have widgets to do exactly what you want. A text box for output and an entry widget for reading keyboard input. Plus you can wrap them in a nice frame with titles, help, open/save/close, etc.