title: can I display realtime feedback in a terminal game?
body: <p>I'm trying to write a simple terminal-based dungeon-style game in C, but I want to give the user real-time feedback on various processes that they affect.  </p>
  
  <p>I remember using kbhit() years ago, but I also remember the cpu going to 100% during the life of the program.  I'd like to avoid this entirely.  And I'm working in Linux now.</p>
  
  <p>Let's say that you're in a dungeon in a text-based adventure game.  The dungeon is sealed off.  There's only so much air in the room.  The longer you remain there, the lower the oxygen gets.  I want to report the oxygen level in the room in real-time, while at the same time accepting commands from the user.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to do this?</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: The one idea I had was to use two terminal windows.  Commands are taken in one terminal, the results of those commands could be written to a text file.  The other terminal will have a program running that runs real-time stuff, and checks periodically on the same text file for updates on rates, etc.  Ideally, I'd like to do this in one window.</p>