| KEYBOARD(3) | KEYBOARD(3)

NAME

| initkeyboard, ctlkeyboard, closekeyboard – keyboard control

SYNOPSIS

`#include <u.h>
#include <libc.h>
#include <thread.h>
#include <keyboard.h>

` `Keyboardctl *initkeyboard(char *file)

` `int ctlkeyboard(Keyboardctl *kc, char *msg)

` `void closekeyboard(Keyboard *kc)
`

DESCRIPTION

These functions access and control a keyboard interface for character-at-a-time I/O in a multi-threaded environment, usually in combination with mouse(3). They use the message-passing `Channel` interface in the threads library (see thread(3)); programs that wish a more event-driven, single-threaded approach should use event(3).

Initkeyboard opens a connection to the keyboard and returns a `Keyboardctl` structure:

`typedef struct Keyboardct Keyboardctl;
struct Keyboardctl
{

| Channel *c; /* chan(Rune[20]) */ char *file; int consfd; /* to cons file */ int ctlfd; /* to ctl file */ int pid; /* of slave proc */

};

`

The argument to initkeyboard is ignored (on Plan 9, it is the name of the keyboard device).

Once the `Keyboardctl` is set up a message containing a `Rune` will be sent on the `Channel Keyboardctl.c` to report each character read from the device.

Ctlkeyboard is used to set the state of the interface, typically to turn raw mode on and off. It writes the string msg to the control file associated with the device, which is assumed to be the regular device file name with the string `ctl` appended.

Closekeyboard closes the file descriptors associated with the keyboard, kills the slave processes, and frees the `Keyboardctl` structure.

SOURCE

| `/usr/local/plan9/src/libdraw`

SEE ALSO

| graphics(3), draw(3), event(3), thread(3).

BUGS

| Because the interface delivers complete runes, there is no way to report lesser actions such as shift keys or even individual bytes.