ReadKey like Function in C

[mcdonald at uxe.cso.uiuc.edu]

/* Written 11:05 pm  Aug 12, 1989 by scs at adam.pika.mit.edu in uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.lang.c */
In article <13446 at bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> scs at pika.mit.edu wrote:
>...the astonishing frequency with which this
>question arises indicates that the opportunity is
>ripe for some kind of informal, community-"standard" solution.

In article <1989Aug13.004829.28322 at utzoo.uucp> henry at utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>I strongly suggest that you read IEEE standard 1003.1, i.e. POSIX, before
>re-inventing the wheel pointlessly.  POSIX compliance will be widespread
>in the very near future, so the POSIX approach will automatically be
>*far* more widespread than any "community 'standard'" approach.

Posix fooey!!!!!! Posix is a standard for one and only one OS, not
a language standard. IT WILL BE OF ZERO repeat ZERO utility. Let's
get this straight:

FLAME ON!!   FLAME ON!! FLAME ON!!!

What is needed is a language standard, in the C standard, in the Fortran
standard, in the Pascal standard, in the A.. (oops, that's already too big,
besides it may already be there with the kitchen sink). Standardization
on one OS is NOT what is needed!!!!!!! For example it ALREADY is
standard on MSDOS. 

The language standards need some construct equivalent to what getch()
and kbhit() do on MSDOS. 

This MUST be IN THE LANGUAGE STANDARD!!!!!! It MUST MUST MUST be there
(do you begin to feel the flame???) to FORCE vendors to, if necessary,


************************************

FIX THEIR OPERATING SYSTEMS SO IT WILL WORK

************************************

Flame off. A mode flag to make getchar behave like getch would be
OK, but some new function like kbhit() would still be needed.

The exact name of the functions is of course not really important, except
that getch is already common.

Please note that there are things in the new Fortran standard that
will require some vendors to fix their OS's - like long global
names.

I do not speak for any vendor, merely as a frustrated user.

Doug McDonald