Question

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Python read a single character from the user

I am looking to be able to control a robot with the arrow keys using python. And my idea was to implement code that looked something like this…

#!/usr/bin/env python
# control a robot using python
exit = 0
while exit == 0:
  keypress = ##get keypress, if no key is pressed, continue##
  if keypress == 'q':
    exit = 1
    break
  elif keypress == KEY_UP:
    ##robot move forward##
  elif keypress == KEY_DOWN:
    ##robot move backward##
print "DONE"

However the problem is that I do not know how to get the users input. And I cannot use a GUI based solution like pygame from what I have found because the robot does not use a display.

Any help is very much appreciated!!

Answer 1

A simple curses example. See the docs for the curses module for details.

import curses
stdscr = curses.initscr()
curses.cbreak()
stdscr.keypad(1)

stdscr.addstr(0,10,"Hit 'q' to quit")
stdscr.refresh()

key = ''
while key != ord('q'):
    key = stdscr.getch()
    stdscr.addch(20,25,key)
    stdscr.refresh()
    if key == curses.KEY_UP: 
        stdscr.addstr(2, 20, "Up")
    elif key == curses.KEY_DOWN: 
        stdscr.addstr(3, 20, "Down")

curses.endwin()