man(1) Manual page archive


     KEYBOARD(3)                                           KEYBOARD(3)

     NAME
          initkeyboard, ctlkeyboard, closekeyboard - keyboard control

     SYNOPSIS
          #include <u.h>
          #include <libc.h>
          #include <thread.h>
          #include <keyboard.h>

          Keyboardctl    *initkeyboard(char *file)

          int            ctlkeyboard(Keyboardctl *kc, char *msg)

          void           closekeyboard(Keyboard *kc)

     DESCRIPTION
          These functions access and control a keyboard interface for
          character-at-a-time I/O in a multi-threaded environment,
          usually in combination with mouse(3). They use the message-
          passing Channel interface in the threads library (see
          thread(3)); programs that wish a more event-driven, single-
          threaded approach should use event(3).

          Initkeyboard opens a connection to the keyboard and returns
          a Keyboardctl structure:

               typedef struct Keyboardct Keyboardctl;
               struct Keyboardctl
               {
                     Channel *c;       /* chan(Rune[20]) */

                     char    *file;
                     int     consfd;   /* to cons file */
                     int     ctlfd;    /* to ctl file */
                     int     pid;      /* of slave proc */
               };

          The argument to initkeyboard is ignored (on Plan 9, it is
          the name of the keyboard device).

          Once the Keyboardctl is set up a message containing a Rune
          will be sent on the Channel Keyboardctl.c to report each
          character read from the device.

          Ctlkeyboard is used to set the state of the interface, typi-
          cally to turn raw mode on and off.  It writes the string msg
          to the control file associated with the device, which is
          assumed to be the regular device file name with the string
          ctl appended.

     KEYBOARD(3)                                           KEYBOARD(3)

          Closekeyboard closes the file descriptors associated with
          the keyboard, kills the slave processes, and frees the
          Keyboardctl structure.

     SOURCE
          /src/libdraw

     SEE ALSO
          graphics(3), draw(3), event(3), thread(3).

     BUGS
          Because the interface delivers complete runes, there is no
          way to report lesser actions such as shift keys or even
          individual bytes.