Non-blocking keyboard peek

[Adrian May]

Hi folks,

I have simulator which should grind away all night but check the keyboard once per iteration to see if I'm trying to view the results, change parameters or terminate it. Therefore I need a non-blocking keyboard peek function. So far, my searching only lead to some stuff about using threads in GHC but that seems far too complicated and messy. I have no reason to open a new thread and would still have to fight over some resource lock at the very position in the program where I would normally have just peeked at the keyboard and maybe called the menu procedure. I don't think such a peek function would affect referential transparency or be considered gauche for any other reason.

Does it really not exist? Can I write it for a reasonable amount of effort?

Thanks in advance,
AM

PS. This is the second of these mails I sent 'cos the first one just didnt show up on the list.  


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