With Limited HP 3000 experience I write:

I suspect just doing a read of $STDIN will get what you want.  If $STDIN is empty you will probably get something like and EOF condition (I suggest using the FILE STATUS clause of the SELECT, and perhaps even the USE FOR ERROR of the DECLARATIVES SECTION of the PROCEDURE DIVISION).

Not sure what FCONTROL is, nor how it might help.

(Still missing COBOL 68 on Burroughs B1800 which had a WAIT verb extension).

>>> Mark Gallaher <[log in to unmask]> 06/04/99 09:50AM >>>
Hello!

  I'm writing a text-adventure in Cobol on a 3k.  What I need to do is
something like BASIC's INKEY function; I want to check if any keyboard input
has happened and possibly do other processing.

  I *think* I need to open a file to $STDIN and set a quick timeout using
FCONTROL; am I on the right track?

<snip>