Hello Kurt, thank you for your efforts. I can comprehend much of
  the code and follow what you are doing, but the show_menu function
  has me beat at this stage. I _NEED_ comments in it. I can recognise
  that you are using the ternary operator, and appreciate some of the
  subtle elegance, but at my level, it may as well be the winning
  entry in the obfuscated code competition.
  I have put the show_menu function into it's own file for study, and
  adding comments as I study and see how it works. My level of
  experience is not yet up to loading it in the TC IDE and watching
  it run to probe it. I do use the context sensitive on line help,
  but some of your elegant code has me baffled.
int show_menu(char **txt, int x, int y)
{
      /* parameter declaration **txt is a pointer to an array of
         character strings, the last of which is a null string */
   int selection = 0, key = 0, max, wide = 0;
   char *screenbuffer, format[16], buffer[80];
   for(max = 0; *txt[max]; max++)
      /* this steps through the strings that **txt points
         to tallying them in max */
      wide = ((key = strlen(txt[max])) > wide) ? key : wide;
      /* this stores the length of the longest menu item string */
   screenbuffer = malloc((max + 1) * (wide + 3) * 2);
   if(!screenbuffer)
      return -1;    /* check that malloc succeeds */
   gettext(x, y, x + wide + 2, y + max, screenbuffer);
      /* the piece of screen which is about to be used is saved */
   sprintf(format, " %s-%d.%ds ", "%", wide, wide);
      /* this fills the format string array with formatting for the next
         sprintf call. format[] should contain [ %-(wide).(wide)s ] which
         is a left justified string displaying at least (wide) characters
         and displaying no more than (wide) characters */
   for(key = 0; key < max; key++) /* stepping through the strings */
   {
      sprintf(buffer, format, txt[key]); /* put them into the buffer */
      norm_text(buffer, x, key + y);   /* and output the buffer to screen */
   }
   while(key != '\r' && key != 27)  /* while not enter or escape */
   {                                /* more commenting on the way */
      sprintf(buffer, format, txt[selection]);
      norm_text(buffer, x, selection + y);
      selection = (selection + max - (key == -72) + (key == -80)) % max;
      sprintf(buffer, format, txt[selection]);
      high_text(buffer, x, selection + y);
      key = ((key = getch()) > 0) ? key : -getch();
   }
   selection = (selection + 1) * (key != 27);
   puttext(x, y, x + wide + 2, y + max, screenbuffer);
   free(screenbuffer);
   return (key == '\r') ? selection : 0;
}
  Regards,     Mark Trickett
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