a question about using curses lib

[Xinhua Wu]

I'm writing a program using curses lib.  I want to use function keys (eg,
use arrow keys to choose from a menu).  The program should work for different
terminal types (vt100, xterm, ibmaed, h19, etc).

My general question is: how can I make the program recognize a function key
immediately after the user hits it?

I'm now using wgetch(win) to read the input (wgetstr(win, str) needs a newline
or EOF).  The problem is that in this case the program needs to know in advance
the code for a function key and how long the code is.  Since the code and the
length vary for different terminal types (eg, the code for uparrow is \033A
for ibmaed, \033[A for xterm and vt100 under X), the program may not work
for new terminal types.

Thanks in advance for any help.


Xinhua Wu
xwu at cse.usc.edu