Keyboard routines
These functions are declared in the main Allegro header file:
#include <allegro5/allegro.h>
ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE
typedef struct ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE;
This is a structure that is used to hold a "snapshot" of a keyboard's state at a particular instant. It contains the following publically readable fields:
- display - points to the display that had keyboard focus at the time the state was saved. If no display was focused, this points to NULL.
You cannot read the state of keys directly. Use the function al_key_down.
Key codes
The constant ALLEGRO_KEY_MAX is always one higher than the highest key code. So if you want to use the key code as array index you can do something like this:
bool pressed_keys[ALLEGRO_KEY_MAX];
...
pressed_keys[key_code] = true;
These are the list of key codes used by Allegro, which are returned in the event.keyboard.keycode field of the ALLEGRO_KEY_DOWN and ALLEGRO_KEY_UP events and which you can pass to al_key_down:
ALLEGRO_KEY_A ... ALLEGRO_KEY_Z,
ALLEGRO_KEY_0 ... ALLEGRO_KEY_9,
ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_0 ... ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_9,
ALLEGRO_KEY_F1 ... ALLEGRO_KEY_F12,
ALLEGRO_KEY_ESCAPE,
ALLEGRO_KEY_TILDE,
ALLEGRO_KEY_MINUS,
ALLEGRO_KEY_EQUALS,
ALLEGRO_KEY_BACKSPACE,
ALLEGRO_KEY_TAB,
ALLEGRO_KEY_OPENBRACE, ALLEGRO_KEY_CLOSEBRACE,
ALLEGRO_KEY_ENTER,
ALLEGRO_KEY_SEMICOLON,
ALLEGRO_KEY_QUOTE,
ALLEGRO_KEY_BACKSLASH, ALLEGRO_KEY_BACKSLASH2,
ALLEGRO_KEY_COMMA,
ALLEGRO_KEY_FULLSTOP,
ALLEGRO_KEY_SLASH,
ALLEGRO_KEY_SPACE,
ALLEGRO_KEY_INSERT, ALLEGRO_KEY_DELETE,
ALLEGRO_KEY_HOME, ALLEGRO_KEY_END,
ALLEGRO_KEY_PGUP, ALLEGRO_KEY_PGDN,
ALLEGRO_KEY_LEFT, ALLEGRO_KEY_RIGHT,
ALLEGRO_KEY_UP, ALLEGRO_KEY_DOWN,
ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_SLASH, ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_ASTERISK,
ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_MINUS, ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_PLUS,
ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_DELETE, ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_ENTER,
ALLEGRO_KEY_PRINTSCREEN, ALLEGRO_KEY_PAUSE,
ALLEGRO_KEY_ABNT_C1, ALLEGRO_KEY_YEN, ALLEGRO_KEY_KANA,
ALLEGRO_KEY_CONVERT, ALLEGRO_KEY_NOCONVERT,
ALLEGRO_KEY_AT, ALLEGRO_KEY_CIRCUMFLEX,
ALLEGRO_KEY_COLON2, ALLEGRO_KEY_KANJI,
ALLEGRO_KEY_LSHIFT, ALLEGRO_KEY_RSHIFT,
ALLEGRO_KEY_LCTRL, ALLEGRO_KEY_RCTRL,
ALLEGRO_KEY_ALT, ALLEGRO_KEY_ALTGR,
ALLEGRO_KEY_LWIN, ALLEGRO_KEY_RWIN,
ALLEGRO_KEY_MENU,
ALLEGRO_KEY_SCROLLLOCK,
ALLEGRO_KEY_NUMLOCK,
ALLEGRO_KEY_CAPSLOCK
ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_EQUALS,
ALLEGRO_KEY_BACKQUOTE,
ALLEGRO_KEY_SEMICOLON2,
ALLEGRO_KEY_COMMAND
Keyboard modifier flags
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_SHIFT
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_CTRL
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ALT
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_LWIN
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_RWIN
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_MENU
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ALTGR
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_COMMAND
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_SCROLLLOCK
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_NUMLOCK
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_CAPSLOCK
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_INALTSEQ
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ACCENT1
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ACCENT2
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ACCENT3
ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ACCENT4
The event field 'keyboard.modifiers' is a bitfield composed of these constants. These indicate the modifier keys which were pressed at the time a character was typed.
al_install_keyboard
bool al_install_keyboard(void)
Install a keyboard driver. Returns true if successful. If a driver was already installed, nothing happens and true is returned.
See also: al_uninstall_keyboard, al_is_keyboard_installed
al_is_keyboard_installed
bool al_is_keyboard_installed(void)
Returns true if al_install_keyboard was called successfully.
al_uninstall_keyboard
void al_uninstall_keyboard(void)
Uninstalls the active keyboard driver, if any. This will automatically unregister the keyboard event source with any event queues.
This function is automatically called when Allegro is shut down.
See also: al_install_keyboard
al_get_keyboard_state
void al_get_keyboard_state(ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE *ret_state)
Save the state of the keyboard specified at the time the function is called into the structure pointed to by ret_state.
See also: al_key_down, ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE
al_key_down
bool al_key_down(const ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE *state, int keycode)
Return true if the key specified was held down in the state specified.
See also: ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE
al_keycode_to_name
const char *al_keycode_to_name(int keycode)
Converts the given keycode to a description of the key.
al_set_keyboard_leds
bool al_set_keyboard_leds(int leds)
Overrides the state of the keyboard LED indicators. Set to -1 to return to default behavior. False is returned if the current keyboard driver cannot set LED indicators.
al_get_keyboard_event_source
ALLEGRO_EVENT_SOURCE *al_get_keyboard_event_source(void)
Retrieve the keyboard event source.
Returns NULL if the keyboard subsystem was not installed.