> > My question is what is the raw keyboard mode? Is it the default?
>
> No, it is NOT the default. Raw keyboard mode allows you to scan for
> "special" keys, like the four directional arrows or "Print Screen". You
> must deliberately enter raw keyboard mode, and then you must exit it
> before your program ends.
All true, however, there are two extra points I think I should add:
- You can actually check for many "special" keys like the cursors
without using raw mode - zgv's src/readnbkey.c shows one way to do
this. [1] The thing raw mode lets you do which you *can't* do any
other way (in the general case), is to handle more than one key
being pressed at once. This is often essential for games and
emulators. Personally, though, I'd avoid raw mode unless you really
need it.
- If you do use raw mode, be warned that svgalib will *not* let you
see ctrl-c by default; it catches that and exits. If you need to be
able to see ctrl-c, or if it's important that your program can't be
killed off by pressing it, then you need to do
`keyboard_translatekeys(DONT_CATCH_CTRLC);' after keyboard_init().
-Rus.
[1] Though it works in a strange (but in context, necessary) way - for
less insane svgalib programs :-), you'd probably want to use
vga_getkey() where that uses getnbkey().
