nonrequired input, modifying loops as they run, not stopping.

[iochinome]

hey guys, so i am doing a project in which i need to be able to get input to alter the processes of a loop while it is running, but without disrupting the loop- so, if the user enters a character and hits enter, for instance, the value of some variable in the loop would be changed, but otherwise the loop continues on unstopped. is there a way to do this? (this is on ubuntu linux 9.10, by the way) thanks!

[helios]

You'll either need multi-threading to get user input in parallel, or a way to poll input to the console.