Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!ico!ism780c!news
From: news@ism780c.isc.com (News system)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: How do I make my program beep.
Keywords: beep
Message-ID: <43605@ism780c.isc.com>
Date: 7 Jun 90 19:34:29 GMT
References: <3472@umn-d-ub.D.UMN.EDU> <1990May27.000808.13551@utzoo.uucp> <1990Jun6.124609.7316@agate.berkeley.edu> <3168@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au>
Reply-To: marv@ism780.UUCP (Marvin Rubenstein)
Organization: Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica CA
Lines: 15

In article <3168@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
>(2) #define mybeep putchar('\7')
>    has a fairly serious defect:  output to stdout is often buffered or
>    line-buffered, and '\7' is not a complete record.  You need
>	#define mybeep (putchar('\7'), fflush(stdout))
>

putchar('\7') has an even more serious defect.  The reason for beeping is
to notify the user of the program of something while the program is
*running*. There is no guarantee that sending a '\7' to stdout will cause an
beep.  Stdout may well be a diskfile.  The output must be directed to a
device that will make a noise that the user can hear.  I know of no portable
way to do this.

    Marv Rubinstein