Text

OpenGL per se is a low-level API and doesn't have any specific functionality for drawing text. However...

First suggestion: check out NeHe's tutorial on the subject. There is some functionality available through glu (or maybe glut) that allows you to construct and use a system font using display lists.

That's how I did it at first with my console system. After I had my whole shader system up and running, though, I switched to simple textured quads so that the text could be processed just like all the other graphics. That's what I'd recommend shooting for. But, the NeHe approach might get you going more quickly.