KEY_ENTER vs '\n'?

Question

When I'm using PDcurses and I try to have a while loop exit when the enter key is pressed with while(key != KEY_ENTER), the while loop never exits. However, when I try to have the same loop exit with while((char)key != '\n'), it exits successfully whenever I pressed enter. Why does '\n' work and not KEY_ENTER?

btw, key is an int

and I hope this is the relevant few lines of the code:

int key;
while((char)key != '\n') {
    key = getch();
    ...
}

Answer 1

getch() is a function defined by the ANSI C standard for the C runtime library.

On most systems, such as Windows, Linux, etc., this function is implemented to return '\n' when the user pressed Enter. For Comparison, on Windows the key-press itself (of Enter) might be represented as the key-code VK_ENTER.

PDCurses is translating the key codes to ASCII values for you.

You can get the key values you want if you first call the PDCurses functions raw(); nonl();. Also, you should probably use wgetch() for new code.

Answer 2

KEY_ENTER == 0x157, '\n' == 0xA

'\n' is the standard ASCII newline, while KEY_ENTER represents a keyboard code. See the PDCurses code.

For more information, you should post the relevant part of your code.