From: Dale Martenson <dale.martenson@...>
Date: 2006-01-25T01:28:00+09:00
Subject: Re: How to capture a pressed key?

Are you running on Windows or Linux?

In Windows, you can do something like this:

  require 'Win32API'

  $win32_console_kbhit = Win32API.new("msvcrt", "_kbhit", [], 'I')
  $win32_console_cputs = Win32API.new("msvcrt", "_cputs", ['P'], 'I')
  $win32_console_getch = Win32API.new("msvcrt", "_getch", [], 'I')

  def console_input_ready?
    $win32_console_kbhit.call != 0
  end

  def console_input
    $win32_console_getch.call
  end

  def console_output( str )
    $win32_console_cputs.call( str )
  end

  while true
    if console_input_ready? then
        ch = console_input
        print "ch: <#{ch.chr}>\n"
        break
    else
        console_output( "." )
        sleep 0.5
    end
  end