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From: defaria@hpclapd.HP.COM (Andy DeFaria)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Keyboard input
Message-ID: <920031@hpclapd.HP.COM>
Date: 21 Sep 90 17:50:08 GMT
References: <39@screamer.csee.usf.edu>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Calif. Language Lab
Lines: 23

>/ hpclapd:comp.lang.ada / sampson@cod.NOSC.MIL (Charles H. Sampson) /  4:20 pm  Sep 20, 1990 /

>     Lots of operating systems give the programmer the ability to read
>individual keystrokes, in addition to reading entire lines.  I've always
>assumed that the "usual" Ada approach to inputting single characters
>(above) was an implementation decision:  If the individual keystrokes
>are read, the system's line-editing features (backspace, start over, etc.)
>are either lost or must be duplicated in the Ada program.  If they're
>lost, the program becomes very user-unfriendly.  For example, if the
>user enters "A-backspace-B", more than likely only the "B" appears on
>the screen, but the Ada program has seen all three characters and might
>even emit an error message about them, which looks like it's complaining
>about the "B".  Implementors, is my assumption about your decision right?

Sure, sure, sure... But what if he Ada programmer, like the initial poster,
*WANTS*  to  do  their own  single  character I/O   and handle any editting
process,  perhaps   to provide  a different,   more  friendly or consistent
editting process, huh?  How does he/she do it?

P.S.	I hate when people don't answer the question posed
P.S.S.	I'm  also not answering the  question but  I don't know the answer.
	Perhaps the solution is  to call the OS  routine (read or getc) but
	that isn't Ada or portable.