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From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Keyin from C
Keywords: C Key
Message-ID: <13075@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 7 Jun 90 19:27:15 GMT
References: <1422@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 20

In article <1422@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU> bchurch@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Bob Church) writes:
>I am trying to read a key from the keyboard in C. I want to be able
>to read a single key such as a cursor without pressing return. I put
>together a short function which directly accesses STROBE and KBD. This
>works but is obviously machine dependent. Is there a "true C" way of
>doing this? All of the C functions seem to depend upon return being 
>pressed.

There is no portable facility for this in C.  Some systems do not even
provide ANY way to accomplish a keyin() function.  Those that do, use
different methods to accomplish it.  Your best bet is to design an
interface that can be implemented in most environments and have your
application use that interface; the implementation of the interface
will have to be done for each different system time to which you port
your applications.

For example,
	extern void rawmode();	/* enter single-key input mode */
	extern void cookedmode();	/* resume line-at-a-time mode */
	extern int getkey();	/* return next available character */