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From: tom@uw-warp.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Unbuffered I/O using MicroSoft C 3.0
Message-ID: <649@uw-warp.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Jan-87 05:11:56 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-warp.649
Posted: Thu Jan 22 05:11:56 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Jan-87 09:46:34 EST
References: <1867@sunybcs.UUCP> <645@uw-warp.UUCP> <217@uvicctr.UUCP>
Organization: The Warp, Seattle, WA
Lines: 40
Summary: OK, there is a getch routine for unbuffered console i/o

In article <217@uvicctr.UUCP>, sbanner1@uvicctr.UUCP (S. John Banner) writes:
> In article <645@uw-warp.UUCP> tom@uw-warp.UUCP (Tom May) writes:
> >So, here is the promised routine which invokes MS-DOS to get a
> >character from the keyboard (not stdin) without echoing it.
[deleted routine]
> you can actually do the same thing without resorting to DOS in mscv4.0,
> and I understand it works in earlyer versions as well (I got the trick
> from a freind of mine using v2.something).
> 
> grokchar()
> {
> while (!kbhit())
>    ;
> return getc();
> }
> 
> I am not totally sure that I have the right funtion names here, but I
> know they are pretty close (you might try fgetc if getc doesn't work),
> and I may have the wrong name for kbhit, but the names should be pretty
> obvious.
> 
>                       S. John Banner
> 
> ...!uw-beaver!uvicctr!sbanner1
> ccsjb@uvvm
> sbanner1@uvunix.UVIC.CDN

Actually, the following routine does the job:
int grokchar () {
	return getch();
}

This routine can also be optimized away in an obvious manner.  But if your
C library doesn't have a getch(), you have to do it with intdos or whatever
low-level hook type stuff is available.  The kbhit() is unnecessary since
getch() waits for a character.  Btw, kbhit() is the only weird MS-C library
console i/o type extension that can't be done with an intdos, since the
corresponding DOS function returns its status in the z flag, which is
not in `union REGS'.-- 
Tom May.	uw-beaver!uw-nsr!uw-warp!tom
(So, do I pass the Turing test?)