.\" Generated by the Allegro makedoc utility
.TH poll_keyboard 3alleg4 "version 4.4.3" "Allegro" "Allegro manual"
.SH NAME
poll_keyboard \- Polls the keyboard. Allegro game programming library.\&
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <allegro.h>

.sp
.B int poll_keyboard();
.SH DESCRIPTION
Wherever possible, Allegro will read the keyboard input asynchronously 
(ie. from inside an interrupt handler), but on some platforms that may 
not be possible, in which case you must call this routine at regular 
intervals to update the keyboard state variables.

To help you test your keyboard polling code even if you are programming
on a platform that doesn't require it, after the first time that you
call this function Allegro will switch into polling mode, so from that
point onwards you will have to call this routine in order to get any
keyboard input at all, regardless of whether the current driver actually
needs to be polled or not.

The keypressed(), readkey(), and ureadkey() functions call poll_keyboard()
automatically, so you only need to use this function when accessing the
key[] array and key_shifts variable.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
Returns zero on success, or a negative number on failure (ie. no keyboard
driver installed).

.SH SEE ALSO
.BR keyboard_needs_poll (3alleg4),
.BR install_keyboard (3alleg4),
.BR key (3alleg4),
.BR key_shifts (3alleg4),
.BR excamera (3alleg4),
.BR exsample (3alleg4),
.BR exstars (3alleg4)