HELP! checking and getting a char without actually waiting for return.

[Alan Waterman]

I am writing a program where I need to get single character commands.

I want to be able to check to see if a char has been entered without
waiting for a return. If nothing is entered, then the program should
continue on with the next statement after a few mseconds.
If a char is entered, I want to retrieve it for use. I've figured
out how to prompt for single char input without having to wait for
a carriage return. Now I need to do the same thing but without waiting
for a char to be entered.

Any clues? Does it have anything to do with cbreak and curses?