[Tutor] (no subject)

[Daniel Yoo]

On Mon, 27 Nov 2000, Devansh Dhutia wrote:

> i was wondering if its possible in python to be able to read the keystrokes
> from a keyboard??
> for example, if a user was to input a sequence of numbers or letters, i want
> to be able to display them elsewhere on the screen immediately after the
> user presses a key.

Hello!  You can do rudimentary input with the functions:

    raw_input()
    input()

Here's a sample interpreter session that shows how to use raw_input():

###
>>> def queryAndGreet():
...     name = raw_input("Please enter your name here: ")
...     print "Hello", name, "nice to meet you."
... 
>>> queryAndGreet()
Please enter your name here: Devansh
Hello Devansh nice to meet you.
###

You'll probably want to use raw_input() to read in your strings; input()
has a more specialized purpose.

However, I get the feeling that your question asked for more control over
screen input and output.  If you want fine-tuned control over what happens
on the screen, you might want to look at the curses library:

    http://python.org/doc/current/lib/module-curses.html

The curses library will let you position characters at any coordinate of
your text screen.  You might need to learn a little more Python before
using it, but you'll definitely have some fun with it.

    http://www.python.org/doc/howto/curses/curses.html

Finally, I wrote some hideously ugly code that works with the curses
library, if you want an example.  Take a look here:

    http://hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu/~dyoo/python/circularwriting.py