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I am still struggling with this question. The old microsoft compiler had a &quot;check keyboard buffer&quot; function call. It returned a true when someone started typing on the keyboard, then I could go and get the data using a scanf or some other call. What I am really looking for is a way to to know someone want to type in a command without having to press return. For example, how would I read a function key without an eof after it?<br />

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I am still struggling with this question. The old microsoft compiler had a "check keyboard buffer" function call. It returned a true when someone started typing on the keyboard, then I could go and get the data using a scanf or some other call. What I am really looking for is a way to to know someone want to type in a command without having to press return. For example, how would I read a function key without an eof after it?


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How do I test for key pressed in UNIX? Better still, I am displaying data updates on a ASCII screen, and would like to lock the screen update function and invoke a command interpeter when the user presses a key. A getchar() function in a secondary thread does not seem to work well. 
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How do I test for key pressed in UNIX? Better still, I am displaying data updates on a ASCII screen, and would like to lock the screen update function and invoke a command interpeter when the user presses a key. A getchar() function in a secondary thread does not seem to work well. 

Unix keyboard I/O

C is a general-purpose, imperative computer programming language, supporting structured programming, lexical variable scope and recursion, while a static type system prevents many unintended operations. By design, C provides constructs that map efficiently to typical machine instructions, so it has found lasting use in applications that had formerly been coded in assembly language, including operating systems as well as various application software for computers ranging from supercomputers to embedded systems. It is distinct from C++ (which has its roots in C) and C#, and many later languages have borrowed directly or indirectly from C.