Just a standard text application. poll() does exactly what I am trying to 
achieve, thanks for the help to you and Matthias!

On Tuesday 04 December 2001 15:03, Richard Rauch wrote:
> Detecting a key press depends on the context.
>
> Are you at a text console (either without running X, or running in an
> xterm---over even over a ssh link)?  Or do you want to set up your own X
> window?  Or are you using GLUT with the OpenGL?  Or some other toolkit?
>
> In a windowing situation, this tends to be easier, since you get varous
> event messages (or callbacks).  In a text-based application, one way to do
> it is to put the tty into ``raw'' mode, and spin off a seperate process to
> wait on input while the other process starts your endless ``determine the
> meaning of life loop''.  When input comes to the first process, it can
> then signal the looping process, and both can exit.
>
> That's not a terribly elegant solution, but it should work.  (^&
>
>
>   ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu