Re: Stopping a loop with user input. in curses
 

Hey Alex,
I wrote a detailed explanation earlier today and it seams to have disappeared.
That's okay, because I had really beat up your code.

You know, it didn't occure to me till hours later that all you really had to do
is move the second while loop into the "theClock()" definition like this.

I move the second while loop into the "theClock()" function so that it handles
the key press. Then consolodated the while loops into one loop.
If the finished variable is 0(zero) then the loop continues else it breaks the
loop and the function has no where else to go but out.

The problem with your original code is that the call to "theClock()" function
never sees the 'q' key press because the second while loop never gets executed
while the first while loop is forever executing.

I don't have curses installed so I can't test this for you, but it should
work.

# Import curses module

import curses, time
stdscr = curses.initscr()

def theClock():

# Define global colour scheme
curses.init_pair(1, curses.COLOR_WHITE, curses.COLOR_BLUE)

# Get the screen size
max_y, max_x = stdscr.getmaxyx()

# Calculate the clock position relative to the screen size
clock_x = max_x - 28

# Draw the clock
clockWindow = curses.newwin(3, 26, 1, clock_x)
clockWindow.bkgd(' ', curses.color_pair(1))
clockWindow.box()
clockWindow.refresh()

# If 'q' is pressed, exit
finished = 0
while not finished: # finished = 0 until the 'q' key is pressed
c = stdscr.getch()
if c == ord('q'):
curses.beep()
finished = 1
break

t = time.asctime()
clockWindow.addstr(1, 1, t)
clockWindow.refresh()
time.sleep(1)


def main(stdscr):

# Bring up the clock function

theClock()

if __name__ == '__main__':
curses.wrapper(main)

Ray--

Re: Stopping a loop with user input in curses
 

Hello Ray,

Nope. That didn't do it. I got a properly drawn curses box
with nothing inside ... until I hit the 'q' key. Then the clock
popped up and the program quit.

I have a theory on curses. I could be totally wrong here (and it
would be great if I was, actually).

Curses cannot multi-task.

It can't redraw a clock every second and check for a particular
keystroke at the same time -- there is only one cursor after all.

So I guess I'll forgoe the funky clock in my curses app. However,
if you can completely flush this theory down the toilet, it would
be greatly appreciated... :) It would make my life easier in other
aspects of the program I'm trying to write.


Thanks,

Alex

Re: Stopping a loop with user input in curses
 

Thank you so much! That worked fantastically!

I'll have to read up on the select module. It seems like I'll be
using it a lot for the application I'm writing.

Once again, thank you.


Alex