ReadKey like Function in C

[Henry Spencer]

In article <5711 at ficc.uu.net> peter at ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>> The point is, the POSIX way of
>> doing things is the closest there is to an OS-independent standard;...
>
>But it's not. In particular the Posix method of creating new processes is
>highly OS-dependent...

Sigh, Peter, you have *completely* missed my point.  I wasn't saying that
you could do POSIX on any operating system.  Note the word "standard".
My point is that POSIX, good or bad, is a *standard* operating system
interface, with a formally-ratified manufacturer-independent document
defining it and a great many standards organizations (and influential
customers and suppliers) putting their weight firmly behind it.  Even
Unix's major competitors are swearing up and down that they will be POSIX
compatible if it kills them (and it's certainly going to be painful for
Microsoft, say, to reverse all its pathname slashes :-)).  The odds of
finding a POSIX-compatible interface on a random computer from XYZ
Vaporboxes Inc. will be *far* higher than the odds for any other specific
interface.  Even people who cannot be fully compatible, say because they
can't implement fork(), will try to be as compatible as possible, say
in how you ask for raw keyboard input.

>POSIX is not the answer to the gaps that (by necessity) exist in the ANSI
>C standard.

Perhaps not.  But I don't see any superior alternative that is likely to
gain the same volume of support, acceptance, and implementation.
-- 
V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry at zoo.toronto.edu