dwTerm is a software terminal to programs, since it is a minimal GUI to let programmers concentrate on what programs do. Build only the core of your project as a DLL, and let dwTerm load and run it. The windows of dwTerm maintain the outputs, and decompose input command strings to call handlers in the DLL. Furthermore, dwTerm provides DLL programmers with functions for 2D/3D graphics, and provides users with scripting which runs many commands in a file right after loading the DLL.

For example, if your program is to receive users' commands, and to simply display some texts or graphs and you don't want any complex or luxurious design of the main window with many child windows, dwTerm will satisfy you. This may be the case, especially if you are going to program to calculate or do a numerical analysis but you know nothing about creating a window and even don't want to learn it. The output display window and the command input window of dwTerm.exe interact with your DLL.

This method not only lets dwTerm take other parts of the whole program, but also saves the computer's memory if you want to run mutiple instances of the whole program, which cannot be expected when it is built as an EXE.

According to dwTerm API (Application Programming Interface), handlers in your DLL can be called by dwTerm at events (including the start, the end, and the command-input), and various functions in dwTerm can be called by your codes in the DLL. The prototypes of these routines and the related data structures are defined in a header file written in C and should be included in compliling your DLL.

These functions can provide you with useful objects to ease Win32 GDI or OpenGL programming, so that beginners in graphics can use dwTerm as a good toolkit. Furthermore, the display window is capable of anaglyph (3D visualization using 2-color stereoscopic images overlapped to view with 2 color glasses), and the related functions are included. Programming is easy to begin, since example DLLs with the source codes are included in the package.

dwTerm can run the DLL by way of a script file where the DLL and input commands are specified. This is helpful if results you want to see can be achieved after many input commands.