Cocoa, C++, Keyboard input and Timers

FROM : Josh de Lioncourt
DATE : Mon Jun 16 23:47:25 2008

Hello,

An explanation of what I'm working on in brief, to avoid questions as 
to why things are being done the way they are.

My company www.DraconisEntertainment.com develops audio-only computer 
games for the blind and visually impaired.  Most of the games on our 
roster at present are games we acquired from a defunct company and 
were written using Visual Basic 6 for WIndows and use DirectX 8.  Both 
of which are rapidly becoming obsolete.

Due to the upsurge of visually impaired Mac users, myself included, 
we're moving to make our titles cross-platform and up to date with 
more current technologies.

To that end, we're redeveloping many old titles, primarily in C++ for 
the bulk of the coding to make porting between Mac and Windows 
simpler.  The games have no graphical interface to speak of, only an 
audio one.

The plan is to have the main application window to display the game 
logo, but the UI will be audio-only.  This also solves the problem 
that, being visually impaired, Interface Builder is not accessible.  I 
am using Objective C code to generate a window when the application 
launches.

Now for my two issues.

I need the app to be able to capture keyboard input when the 
application window has focus, take action based on that input, or, if 
the input is not valid to the game, let it pass through to the OS.  My 
experience is mostly in Windows development, and I have no idea even 
where to start looking to accomplish this for the Mac OS X platform. 
Can you point me in the right direction?

Next, I need to be able to keep track of real-time during the game. 
In Windows, we'd use something like GetTickCount to accomplish this. 
Is there an equivalent on the Mac side?  Again, pointing me in the 
right direction would be tremendously appreciated.

And, any other advice regarding development of C++ that can be ported 
and maintained easily between both OS's would be very welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Josh de Lioncourt
Mac-cessibility: http://www.Lioncourt.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Lioncourt


"The rich declare themselves poor,
"And most of us are not sure,
"If we have too much,
"But we'll take our chances,
"'cause God stopped keeping score."
Praying for Time--George Michael