Why doesn't Python include non-blocking keyboard input function?

[BartC]

On 28/10/2016 11:35, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
> BartC <bc at freeuk.com>:
>
>> On 28/10/2016 10:22, Christian Gollwitzer wrote:
>>> So "less" in C uses ncurses. You can do the same in Python, "import
>>> curses" - instead of fiddling with terminal escape characters you
>>> leave that to a library, just like less does it.
>>
>> As I commented further up the thread, I tried 'import curses' in
>> Windows and it said it couldn't find the module.
>
> I can't comment on Windows. I'm only talking about Linux. Christian was
> talking about OSX.
>
> As for why there isn't a facility that would do it on all platforms,
> that question is akin to: Oh, why can't everybody just speak English?
>
>> If you intend this keyboard handling to be a very minor part of a
>> larger application, you don't want it falling over the first time
>> someone tries to use it.
>
> Didn't someone in this thread already mention a way to do it in Windows?

There are a million ways to do it. But you don't want a million, you 
want one.

Otherwise "A" will now need to create a new library which presents a 
common API to the application but internally takes care of the 
differences between platforms. But now you have an extra dependency for 
your app. Your own code is not a problem; you just bundle it with the 
app. But platform-dependent dependencies (if that makes sense) can be a 
problem.

And "B" who wants to use the same functionality will have to find their 
own solution, and so on.

This is exactly the sort of 're-inventing the wheel' that not including 
the functionality in the language was supposed to avoid!

-- 
Bartc