WaitForChar

Determine if chars arrive within a time limit

If a character is available to be read from 'file' within the time (in microseconds) indicated by 'timeout', WaitForChar() returns -1 (TRUE). If a character is available, you can use Read() to read it. Note that WaitForChar() is only valid when the I/O stream is connected to a virtual terminal device such as a console window opened with the NewShell command or through the System/Shell Workbench tool. If a character is not available within 'timeout', a 0 (FALSE) is returned.

Due to a bug in the timer.device in Kickstart 1.2/1.3 (V33/V34), specifying a timeout of zero for WaitForChar() can lead to unreliable timer & floppy disk operations. This is fixed in V36 and later.

file

BCPL pointer to a FileHandle

timeout

integer

status

boolean

Read(), FGetC()