**CIGAL Reference Manual, Chapter 3 (Functions): GETCHAR**
===== GETCHAR -- Read one character from the keyboard =====
**usage: val = getchar(noecho,nowait)**

GETCHAR reads one character from the keyboard.  The returned value is the
read character.  The flag arguments NOECHO and NOWAIT control how
GETCHAR is called, as follows:
      If NOECHO == 0, the character is echoed on the screen as it is read
      If NOWAIT == 0, the function waits until a character has been typed
      If NOWAIT != 0, the function returns immediately; if no character was
                      read, the return value is 0
   
      Both NOECHO and NOWAIT default to 0.

NOTE: The internal variable, KEYRD can also be used to read a keyboard
character.  Each time you read the KEYRD variable it returns the next
typed character.  KEYRD behaves as a variable, rather than a function
and can be used more easily than GETCHAR. For most purposes, KEYRD
is equivalent to GETCHAR(0,0).

**See Also:**\\
[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter3:gettxt|GETTXT(3)]], 
[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter3:getxyz|GETXYZ(3)]], 
[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter4:keyrd|KEYRD(4)]], 
[[jvs:cigal:manual:chapter2:wait|WAIT(2)]]

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