From: "Cody" <cody1 AT ktsnet DOT com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: [OT] Allegro keyboard handling
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Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 22:23:00 -0500
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

I need some severe help from anybody who has more sense than I do (which I'm
sure is every single person who reads this).  I have been trying to use
Allegro's keyboard routines for a month now in order to detect multiple key
presses, but I haven't succeeded yet.  I need it for a small game that I'm
making/experimenting with.  What happens is this:  if the user presses a
key, it reads it just fine, until it presses another key with the original
still held down.  Here is when it completely ignores the first key and just
reads the second key, or 3rd key, or whatever the case may be.  How do I
know when those others are still being pressed?  I just don't understand
this.  It looks as if my code is practically the same as other examples from
the net, and their code worked just perfectly.  I have tested this on 2
different
computers and 3 different keyboards to see if that was the problem,
but I received the same result.  Well, here is the code (I'll try to make
as concise as possible)...
btw, with the following code, at least when I pressed up and left at the
EXACT same time it would return both up and left, but I want it to be where
you hold up, it goes up;  still hold up then hold left, it goes up left, not
left... I also want to be able to detect a keypress besides the directions
but w/ directions at same time, such as up, left, and the KEY_X key so that
I can make, for instance, a character in my game fire his gun:

#include "allegro.h"
struct
{
int x,y,r,c;
} mycircle;
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
   allegro_init();
   install_keyboard();
   if (set_gfx_mode(GFX_SAFE, 320, 240, 0, 0) != 0) {
      set_gfx_mode(GFX_TEXT, 0, 0, 0, 0);
      allegro_message("Unable to set any graphic mode\n%s\n",
allegro_error);
      return 1;
   }
   int a,b;
mycircle.x=SCREEN_W/2;
mycircle.y=SCREEN_H/2;
mycircle.c=1;
mycircle.r=5;
while (!key[KEY_ESC]) {
clear_keybuf(); /* same for me w/ or w/o this */
circlefill(screen,mycircle.x,mycircle.y,mycircle.r,mycircle.c);
if (keypressed()) {
if (key[KEY_LEFT])  --mycircle.x;/*move it left*/
if (key[KEY_RIGHT]) ++mycircle.x;/*move it right*/
if (key[KEY_UP])    --mycircle.y;/*move it up*/
if (key[KEY_DOWN])  ++mycircle.y;/*move it down*/
if (key[KEY_EQUALS])++mycircle.r;/*plus sign makes it bigger*/
if (key[KEY_MINUS]) --mycircle.r;/*minus sign... makes it smaller*/
if (key[KEY_ENTER]) ++mycircle.c;/*enter changes color*/
if (key[KEY_ESC]) break;/*exit from loop*/
   }
}
   readkey();
   allegro_exit();
   return 0;
} END_OF_MAIN();