How do I NOT wait for a keypress?

Ok, i really do want to wait for a keypress. But the difference is that I want it to time out after a predetermined amount of time.

The only way I could imagine doing this (without using 2 programs and pipes) is by using a loop. Howeve, putting cin.anything() will wait for input which is not exactly what I want.

Here, let me just show you some code. It will explain it a lot better than I can.

(this code is for illustration only. my question is not a concern with THIS code)

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    time_t start, end;
    
    start = time(0);

    while(  !cin.get()   &&   (difftime(end, start) <= 100)    )
       end = time(0);
    
    if(  difftime(end, start) <= 100  )
            userAbsent_proceedWithVeryLongProcess()
   
    return 0;
}

any ideas?

Time limit on cin

Check of kbhit() and getch() in conio.h... (NOT a std lib)

I need something that works on *nix

I'de suggest a multi-threaded approach. I've done next to nothing in *nix development, but I'm sure there are some friendly libraries that are readily available.

Basis synopsis of what you want:

Code:

1) Create Timer and Input functions
2) Create Two Threads that will call these functions.
3) In your main function
    a. Execute the timer thread first, and the input thread second.
    b. Pass a state variable that tells whether a key down or key
          up event has been triggered.
4) In your timer function
    a. Check the state variable passed to the function
    b. Increase the global timer object by such and such amount if
          a key up event has been registered.

That's the only advice I can give you. I'm not sure what sort of technical details you _can_ use on input streams in this instance, but I'm sure there's something alot better than cin at this point.

I would think that we would all agree on the multi-threaded approach since there's no other way that I know of (other than piping 2 processes), to call two functions that are executed at _virtually_ the same time(e.g your timer accumulator function and your input function) besides multi-threading.

My god people... 2 processes with IPC?.. multi-threading? Thats some serious overkill. use select() with your specified timeout and only read from stdin if select indicates the file descriptor has changes status!

Hahahaha, or that..:P That sounds less heavy, go with that lol.

Originally Posted by Perspective

My god people... 2 processes with IPC?.. multi-threading? Thats some serious overkill. use select() with your specified timeout and only read from stdin if select indicates the file descriptor has changes status!

where in the world might i find select()?

http://www.rt.com/man/select.2.html

rock on, thanks