input without input

[yacinator]

i was wondering how can qb detect key strokes without the input statement. i mean in a game you can't have a input statement "which way do u wanna move?"
can somebody plz help

[Artie]

You can do this, but it starts to get complicated, by reading the keyboard buffer, or something like that.

Check out this thread over at QbasicNews.com:

http://forum.qbasicnews.com/viewtopic.php?t=5421

Be sure to read the "links" in the "links.  It'll take some reading and work to figure it out, but not impossible.

[Guest]

Hi,

Look up INKEY$ in the HELP.

Pappy

[yacinator]

Can somebody please tell me how to use the inkey$ thing? I tried something like this :

Code: Select all

CLS
LET a$=INKEY$
IF a$="a" THEN
PRINT "left"
ELSEIF a$="d" THEN
PRINT "right"
ENDIF
END

and I get a blank screen with "press any key to continue". I press a key and it goes back to the editor mode. ??? Can somebody please give me a sample program with the inkey$ statement please

[Guest]

Hi,

INKEY$ does not wait for a key so a loop is needed to wait for a key to be hit
ie.

PRINT "START"

i$ = ""
WHILE i$ = ""
i$ = INKEY$
WEND
PRINT i$

PRINT "DONE"

This one of many ways I've seem INKEY$ used.
Hope this helps.

Pappy

BTW

Programmers Heaven  and
Tek-Tips

have BASIC forums which have more people in them

[yacinator]

thanks it worked  

[yacinator]

just one little thing. i looked up the inkey$ statement in a book from which i'm learnig qbasic and it said that keys like esc or arrow keys are identified by 2 chr$ statements : chr$(0) and chr$(32) (space). but in the ascii table there's no chr$ esc. can somebody tell me how inkeky$ id's esc plz

[Dr_Davenstein]

the (esc) key is CHR$(27).

[yacinator]

no chr4(27) is not esc it's left arrow!!!!! . can somebody tell me how to make inkey$ id arrow keys and stuff the thing that was in the book i tried but it doesn't work

[Guest]

Yes, INKEY$ identifies the escape key as character #27...
OR CHR$(27)....

Yes it is! You shouldn't be so rude when someone helps you. I think I know what the hell I'm talking about dude.

Code: Select all

DO
X$=INKEY$
Print "PRESS THE (ESC) KEY DUMMY!!!"
LOOP UNTIL X$=CHR$(27)

[yacinator]

thx and i'm srry u were right  

[yacinator]

can somebody plz tell me how F1-12 , Ctrl , Alt and shift are identified by inkey$? (i won't be rude like that anymore)

[Guest]

Hello Yacinator.

I think that  you are asking for Scancodes.  If you jut enter scancodes or scan codes into your browser you will have lots of sites to choose from with lotsa info on how to use them.

Good luck

Val..

[Artie]

Hi Yac;  here's what I do:

The function keys and arrow keys are two-byte codes, so test for all possible one-byte codes first.

KeyCatcher:
a$ = INKEY$
IF a$ = "" THEN GOTO KeyCatcher
IF a$ = CHR$(27) THEN END
'  Put all your other key press tests here.
IF LEN(a$) = 2 THEN a$ = RIGHT$(a$, 1)
IF a$ = CHR$(72) THEN GOTO UpArrowRoutine
IF a$ = CHR$(80) THEN GOTO DownArrowRoutine
IF a$ = CHR$(75) THEN GOTO LeftArrowRoutine
IF a$ = CHR$(77) THEN GOTO RightArrowRoutine
GOTO KeyCatcher

Thats one example.  Try it.

Artie

[yacinator]

i tried this :

Code: Select all

CLS
FOR i = 1 TO 64
LET TIME = TIMER
DO
LET a$ = INKEY$
LOOP UNTIL TIMER = TIME + 5
LET b = LEN(a$)
IF b = 1 THEN
PRINT "the key u pressed is 1 characters long"
ELSEIF b = 2 THEN
PRINT "the key u pressed is 2 characters long"
END IF
PRINT i
INPUT "proceed?", dummy$
NEXT i
PRINT "ready to continue?"
FOR i = 91 TO 255
LET TIME = TIMER
DO
LET a$ = INKEY$
LOOP UNTIL TIMER = TIME + 5
LET b = LEN(a$)
IF b = 1 THEN
PRINT "the key u pressed is 1 characters long"
ELSEIF b = 2 THEN
PRINT "the key u pressed is 2 characters long"
END IF
PRINT i
INPUT "proceed?", dummy$
NEXT i
END

and it wouldn't show anything. then i tried to change the line ELSEIF b=2 THEN to plan ELSE and it would always say 2. how do i fix that?