GetKeyState equivalent function ...

[twomers]

Hi, I'm looking for a function which will return the value of the key pressed ....

I tried using GetKeyState, and other functions like that, but they depend upon the programmer knowing which key is to be pressed.

getch(); is an obvious choice, but it's not a good one because of it depends on a key being pressed, but I want the possibility of one not being pressed:-

start time = current time
while ( some parameters )
{
  if ( key pressed )
  {
     start time = current time
     variable = button pressed
  }
  else if ( time between start time and this time > 5 seconds )
  {
     print something
  }
}

this is the most sudo code It think I've ever seen, never mind written, but it gets about what I want to do. I tried using getch() in the first if statement, but it didn't work . bah!!!

I researched and found WM_KEYDOWN/UP, but they have been somewhat more problematic for my code than I'd have liked - in that I don't have a clue how to use them. bah!

[SlyMaelstrom]

Well it's not standard, but kbhit() allows processing to be handled while waiting for input.

#include <conio.h>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main() {
  while (1)
    if(kbhit())
      getch();
}

[twomers]

thanks a lot!! em, what's kbhit() actually do??

[SlyMaelstrom]

If you have a working conio.h, then compile the attached code. It's some code I wrote (part wrote, the gotoxy and window size I got off the net) and it uses kbhit().

It's a trivia game that works off of a keypress. Note that while it waits for a keypress, the timer in the top right continues to count down. Also note that this is old code and I know it sucks, so don't rag on it. And by the way, hard doesn't work and the end of easy is the same questions as the end of normal.

[OnionKnight]

kbhit() checks if there's anything in stdin; returns true if stdin isn't empty and false otherwise.

[Tonto]

The conio functions do not interface with standard I/O streams.

[SlyMaelstrom]

Yes, but unfortunately, there are few other options and none of them are as simple. I really hope the next big update to the C++ standard comes with standard versions of conio.h's functions and a standard gotoxy().

Any older programmers know the likeliness of that happening?

[Tonto]

>> Yes, but unfortunately, there are few other options and none of them are as simple.

I was just pointing out that kbhit doesn't read from stdin, I don't know anything about further iostream development. Since he noted windows, the OP could also use things like ::WaitForSingleObject(..) and ::ReadConsoleInput(..) to check if the user pressed a key and then read it. I don't think you can use messages because these things are handled by csrss.exe, and I could very well be wrong.

[OnionKnight]

I am not very familiar with the low-level workings so I used stdin to describe the input buffer. If stdin is not used how does the conio.h functions access the input buffer, some cryptic assembly lines?

[SlyMaelstrom]

Quoi? I must have understood what you mean by "not interface with standard I/O streams".

kbhit() abosolutely checks the keyboard buffer (otherwise known as the file descriptor - stdin) to see if there is a character in it. Were you trying to say stdin was an I/O stream?