Question

Is there in Java the possibility to get what a user press “when it presses”
and not when he hits return?

So, for example, if a user hit ABC and then hit Ctrl+Z I want that the program ends there
(end of stream reached) and not, after, when he presses return.

Answer 1

Windows doesn’t actually end the stream when you press Ctrl+Z; you can continue to edit the line and the application will only see the end of the stream when you press Return.

This is slightly different to Unix where Ctrl+D will send the current buffered line to the application (without a newline) and the application will only perceive the end of the stream when you send an empty buffer by pressing Ctrl+D either after a Return or after another Ctrl+D.

Edit: On Windows, you might be able to use the SetConsoleMode function to allow you to read single characters. I’m not sure how you would call it though; there appear to be three choices:

1. Via JNI to a DLL that calls SetConsoleMode
2. Invoke a program that calls SetConsoleMode
3. Wrap your program in a launcher that calls SetConsoleMode
4. Edit: Use JNA to call SetConsoleMode.