Console.ReadLine and buffer size limits

If you have ever tried entering a large body of text at a Windows DOS prompt that was created using .Net’s Console.ReadLine() command you might have realized that you cannot type in more than 256 characters (254 characters to be precise as the last 2 would be used reserved for the CR and LF characters).

Here is a simple way of getting around this limit in .Net (C# code sample)

My first swing at this did not work and seemed to be ignoring the buffer size in READLINE_BUFFER_SIZE. Below is my 2nd go at it, which fixes the buffer size issue:

private static string ReadLine()
    {
        Stream inputStream = Console.OpenStandardInput(READLINE_BUFFER_SIZE);
        byte[] bytes = new byte[READLINE_BUFFER_SIZE];
        int outputLength = inputStream.Read(bytes, 0, READLINE_BUFFER_SIZE);
        //Console.WriteLine(outputLength);
        char[] chars = Encoding.UTF7.GetChars(bytes, 0, outputLength);
        return new string(chars);
    }

Below is my first iteration code that reads only 1024 bytes of data, regardless of READLINE_BUFFER_SIZE.

const int READLINE_BUFFER_SIZE = 1024;
private static string RL()
{
   Stream inputStream = Console.OpenStandardInput(READLINE_BUFFER_SIZE);
   Console.SetIn(new StreamReader(inputStream));
   return Console.ReadLine();
}