execute until user presses a key?

other than replying upon CTRL-C (which kills the app), in what platform idependant way can I continue executing code in a loop until the user presses a key?

all varieties of getc/gets pause until the user hits a key.

I'm really having trouble with this and would appreciate any suggestions or guidance...

There's no truly platform independent way to do this, it either requires use of a nonstandard function such as kbhit in conio.h or a platform specific feature such as resetting the terminal from cooked to raw in Unix.

-Prelude

From the FAQ in your sig, signal(...) in "signal.h" and have it call a custom handler function looks promising : http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/q19.38.html if I settle for CTRL-C; this should be ok.

I only need this to allow the user to interrupt the program's executing so that they can adjust certain settings before starting it executing again.

If not, then I guess it is time to look up changing modes or find an existing library to handle multiple systems.

,thanks

Signals are certainly a way to go that is standard C, but C's signal support is icky in general. However, if you manage to do it safely and it works then go for it. :)

>If not, then I guess it is time to look up changing modes or find an existing library to handle multiple systems.
A good idea in the case of non-portable constructs is to define a general macro which is conditionally compiled with the proper platform compatibility:

Code:

---

#if defined UNIX
  #define FUNCTION(arg) unixFunction(arg)
#elif defined WINDOWS
  #define FUNCTION(arg) winFunction(arg)
#elif defined DOS
  #define FUNCTION(arg) dosFunction(arg)
#elif defined LINUX
  #define FUNCTION(arg) linuxFunction(arg)
#endif

.
.
.

/* No problem, the system chooses the right function */
FUNCTION ( someVar );

---

-Prelude

Alot of people use EOF.
All you have to do is something like

while(fgets(buf, sizeof buf, stdin) != NULL)
and then when the user on unix hits CTRL-D or on
windows CTRL-Z fgets will return NULL.