GetACharacter(KeyPressed)

[RHARWOOD@EAST.Pima.edu (Ray Harwood)]

In Info-Ada #207, Arne Gehlhaar asks about "reading characters without pressing
a return."  I'd like to make a few observations that might help this specific
question, and the understanding of Ada in general:

1)  The Ada package TEXT_IO merely presents PROCEDURES and FUNCTIONS (okay,
maybe some types, too!).  It strikes me a little odd that Arne says "there is
no Ada COMMAND that allows me...".  There is quite a difference between the
actual Ada LANGUAGE syntax (while-loop, for-loop, case statement, etc) and the
available "routines" provided with any ONE particular compiler.

2) From it's Pascal heritage, keyboard-oriented IO relies heavily on the
operating system (or some intermediary) to give the user a line editing
capability prior to actually "sending" a line of input to the program.  Any
attempt to get(x) in Ada (or READ or READLN in Pascal) basically halts program
execution until a carriage return is entered.

I'd suggest using package sequential_io, using a CHARACTER as the "item type"
being read... sequential_io and direct_io are typically (!) NOT buffered.

Ray Harwood, Data Basix
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