Is there getchar in sage?

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You really want this function in Python, I guess. Here are two relevant links I found, knowing nothing about getchar; I bet you will be able to do better.

• One recipe
• Another recipe

Apparently it's nontrivial to get something that works exactly the same.

What sort of thing are you trying to do? Maybe there is a more natural way in python than getchar...

To get a user string in python, often the raw_input function is used.

Modify to your tastes:

def key_pressed(self):
    """
    Tests whether we received a key press without blocking.

    This works by making stdin temporarily non-blocking, and then
    reading a single char.
    """
    import fcntl
    fl = fcntl.fcntl(sys.stdin, fcntl.F_GETFL)
    fcntl.fcntl(sys.stdin, fcntl.F_SETFL, fl | os.O_NONBLOCK)
    try: 
        key = os.read(sys.stdin.fileno(), 1)
    except OSError: 
        return False
    finally:
        fcntl.fcntl(sys.stdin, fcntl.F_SETFL, fl)
    print 'User pressed key '+key
    return True