I frequently use the console() function to insert code in my LUA code for testing and debugging purposes. For example to track the value of certain variables when doing things in my panel. The console window has to be open to see anything. Or, on my Linux laptop, sometimes I start Ctrlr from aterminal window and I can see the messages in the terminal window, or redirect them to a logfile from there.
If you want all kinds of strings and values to show up in a dialog window that pops up from a panel there are other methods that you need. There are several examples of that in the Ctrlr DEMO distribution.