A network program monitors one or more file descriptors (such as sockets) for activity. It reacts when information is ready to process. This technique can also be applied to keyboard input, though not as elegantly as the kbhit() function shown in last week’s Lesson.
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The C language is famously platform independent. This feature may seem unimportant these days, but back in the early computer era having a language you code code on multiple systems was key to the C language’s success. This benefit may be one reason why C lacks a specific function to check on the keyboard status to determine whether a key has been pressed. Such a function is hardware-dependent.
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Suppose you must write code that remains busy while checking to see whether a key has been pressed. The program repeats a loop, performing various tasks, but eager for that key press. When a key is pressed, the code fetches the key. Two things stand in your way to make this happen.
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The C language lacks an operator that squares a value or, more generally, raises a value to a specific power. To do so, use the pow() function. Yet I’m finding the need for a square() function as I explore some interesting and obscure mathematical thingies.
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Any memory allocated in a function is retained when the function leaves, unless you first free it. This rule applies to all memory allocation functions — except one.
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In last week’s Lesson, I reviewed the switch-case structure and how declared constants aren’t truly the kind of constant a case statement requires. This week I continue my exploration of switch-case, with an interesting and surprising quirk of the default condition.
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