Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!unido!ztivax!tumuc!guug!ott From: ott@guug.UUCP (OTT GmbH) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: handling escape characters Summary: read manual about ioctl & tty Message-ID: <706@guug.UUCP> Date: 9 Aug 89 22:36:41 GMT References: <1989Aug2.164100.7912@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> Organization: GUUG, Munich, Germany Lines: 16 In article <1989Aug2.164100.7912@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>, paul@jane.jpl.nasa.gov (Paul Asmar) writes: > > Has anyone had to write some sort of an editor, and had to deal > with the escape key carrying on several meanings (i.e. the escape > sequences, and the key itself). /etc /etc I have written a command-line-editor (like dosedit) for unix with the same syntax like in dos, that is cursor-up and -down move thru the commands and ESC only clears the current command-line. The way to do this is to set up the terminal into raw-mode and to make the read-call return after 1 char being read or after 1/10 seconds of no input. This is the same way vi does it and differs between ESC only and a cursor-key (like ESC [ A). On slow terminals however vi receives the ESC of a cursor-key, beeps and interprets [ and A as commands (try it by editing a file and keep a cursor key pressed). If you can avoid using the ESC-key in your program, do it. Joachim Ott, Munich, West Germany