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From: jdb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian K. W. Hook)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: wait for a keystroke
Message-ID: <25931@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 15 Dec 90 00:37:26 GMT
References: <1990Dec7.151624.19695@infonode.ingr.com>
Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU
Organization: UF CIS Dept.
Lines: 33

I had the same problem with a flight simulatr that I had been writing.
If you are using Turbo C, the following code should do the trick:

if (kbhit())
  ch=getch()
else {
  dostuff()
}

with QuickC I believe that you use kbdhit().  these check the keystroke
buffer for a key hit.  Also, check out _bios_keybrd() (QC) and bioskey()
under TC.

If you want to just get the last key pressed and flush the buffer of other
keystrokes, the following will work under turbo C.

#include <bios.h>

int getLastKeyPressed ( void )
{
int chTemp;

   while (bioskey(1)!=0) {
      chTemp=getch();
      if (bioskey(1)==0)
         return chTemp;
   }
}

Note that getch() will return a 0 if an extended key was pressed (ie.
F1-F12, arrow keys, page up, etc.) and that you must then do an other
getch() to get the scan code (most PC programming books have this in 
them).