Hi all-
I'm trying to figure out how to flush/clear STDIN for a text-menu based perl script. Below is part of the code for my menu pkg--it displays the menu, gets and handles user selections. handleResponse() calls the callback, which may take some time. BUT-if the user starts typing during the callback's processing, my menu will take it as the next input, and start acting funny. Any ideas on how I can clear STDIN so that I only get what's typed after the handleResponse returns? (Or maybe how I can close STDIN before handleResponse and reopen it after?)
# Name: showLoop
# Desc: MainLoop for displaying text menu and handling input
# In:   loopMax - max number of looping
# Out:  None
sub showLoop {
  my ($self,$loopMax) = (@_);
  
  my $loopNum = 0;
  while (1) {
    # clear screen
    clearScreen();

    # display menu
    print "\n    $self->{'title'}\n\n";
    foreach my $item (@{$self->{"itemsRef"}}) {
      my $label = $item->getLabel();
      print "        $label\n";
    }
    print "\n    Select an option or quit [q]: ";
  
    # handle user response
    my $resp = $self->getResponse();
    if ($resp =~ /^[qQ]$/) {
      last;
    } else {
      $self->handleResponse($resp);
    }
    $loopNum++;
    if ((defined $loopMax) && ($loopNum >= $loopMax)) {
      last;
    }
    
    # flush stdout and stdin
    autoflush STDOUT,1;
    # how to flush/empty stdin without blocking?
        
    # continue
    print "\n    Return continues\n";
    <STDIN>;
  }
}

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print(map(lc(chr),split(6,qw/99672682673683684689632658645641610607/)));

In reply to Ignore STDIN during processing by csotzing

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