[prog] Reading single keypresses in Python

[David Sumbler]

On Sat, 2010-06-19 at 09:31 -0700, Akkana Peck wrote:
> David Sumbler writes:
> > I want to read a single keypress, to confirm or reject something - it's
> > the usual sort of y/n kind of option, although in this case I want to
> > use Enter/Esc as the alternatives.

Thanks, Akkana, for a very complete, helpful reply.  I'd certainly never
have figured it out on my own!  All your suggestions work fine on my
system (apart from needing to change the 'print' lines to the Python3
function form).

> This is all Unix specific and may not work on Windows (though some
> of it is POSIX so who knows? maybe it will work).  If you need it to
> be cross-platform, you might have to use the curses module or at
> least find out how curses handles echo and cbreak across platforms.

Cross-platform?  Not really: I am writing the program partly as a
self-imposed exercise, but also, ultimately, for my own practical use.
GUI agenda programs can be a pain to use, and I reckon a reasonably
well-designed text-based agenda will be much more useful.  I'll be using
it on Linux, of course (Ubuntu and probably Maemo), but in principle
cross-platform functionality would be nice.  In time, I'll probably
experiment with the curses module.

Thanks again for your help.

David

-- 
David Sumbler <david at aeolia.co.uk>