Problems with CURSES in VAX C to build a menu

[doelz at urz.unibas.ch]

I want to show a menu on the screen which is similar to the one you get from 
SMG$. The curses package available on VAX C gives the problem that the 
cursor key is read as terminator instead of a cursor key. On ultrix, I 
cannot even compile it poroperly (it does not matter whether I use curses.h 
or cursesX.h). On another Unix box, I can compile it and it looks shown below.
The cursor key is readily interpreted as <ESC>[A as it should. 

I would be grateful if someone in netland could explain me what goes wrong on
the VMS side or even get me a piece of code which builds a menu and selects an
item. 
Regards 
Reinhard 

************************************************************************
    Dr. Reinhard Doelz            *     EAN     doelz at urz.unibas.ch
      Biocomputing                *     DECNET  48130::doelz
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************************************************************************



modl [/biology/code] % ./test

l-----------------------------------------------------------------------------k
|hello 1       hello 2        hello 3        hello 1        hello 5           |
|                                                                             |
|hello 6       hello 7                                                        |
|                                                                             |
|                                                                             |
 Input character was: 27                                                      |
|                                                                             |
 second Input character was: 91-----------------------------------------------j

 third Input character was: 68



  give any key to stop



Source code: 

/*
*/

#include <curses.h>
#include <stdio.h>

/* globals */ 

WINDOW *window_window; 

/* the array declaration for manu items*/ 

char *menu_def[15]; 


static void doCreateWindows( );
static void doMapWindows( );
static void read_menu_items( ); 
static void display_menu_items( ); 
static void doHandleEvents( );
static void end_of_program( ); 
static void doInitialize( );

/********************** The main program *******************************/

main()
{          

    doInitialize( );
    display_menu_items( ); 
    doHandleEvents( );
    end_of_program( ); 
}                                        

/***************** doInitialize **************************/
static void doInitialize( )
{

    doCreateWindows( );

    doMapWindows( );  

    read_menu_items( ); 
} 

/******* doCreateWindows *********/
static void doCreateWindows( )
{   
    int window_windowX = 0;
    int window_windowY = 0;
    int window_windowW = 80;
    int window_windowH = 9;
                   
    /* Create the main window */

	initscr(); 
	noecho(); 



    window_window = newwin(window_windowH, window_windowW, 
	window_windowY, window_windowX) ; 
	box (window_window,'|','-') ; 

}


/******** doMapWindows ***********/
static void doMapWindows( )                                           
{
	refresh (); 
	wrefresh(window_window); 
}


/********************** reading menu items *****************************/
static void read_menu_items ( )
{ 
	menu_def[1]="hello 1" ; 
	menu_def[2]="hello 2" ; 
	menu_def[3]="hello 3" ; 
	menu_def[4]="hello 4" ; 
	menu_def[5]="hello 5" ; 
	menu_def[6]="hello 6" ; 
	menu_def[7]="hello 7" ; 

}


/********************** display menu items *****************************/
static void display_menu_items( )

{ 

	mvwaddstr(window_window,1,1,menu_def[1]); 
	mvwaddstr(window_window,1,15,menu_def[2]); 
	mvwaddstr(window_window,1,30,menu_def[3]); 
	mvwaddstr(window_window,1,45,menu_def[4]); 
	mvwaddstr(window_window,1,60,menu_def[5]); 
	mvwaddstr(window_window,3,1,menu_def[6]); 
	mvwaddstr(window_window,3,15,menu_def[7]); 
	wrefresh (window_window); 

} 

typedef unsigned char uc;
/****************** doHandleEvents ***********************/
static void doHandleEvents( )
{

# define CURSOR_UP  1

int  input_character; 

	wstandout (window_window); 
	mvwaddstr(window_window,1,45,menu_def[1]); 
	wstandend (window_window);

/* gag */

 	crmode();
    
        input_character= wgetch(window_window);                   
	printf ("\n\n\n\n\n Input character was: %d \n",input_character); 
        input_character= wgetch(window_window);                   
	printf ("\n second Input character was: %d \n",input_character); 
        input_character= wgetch(window_window);                   
	printf ("\n third Input character was: %d \n",input_character); 

/*
	switch (input_character) {
  
		case CURSOR_UP: 
				{ }; 
 				break; 
		default: 
				{ }; 
				break; 
		} 
*/		

}

/***************** doShutdown ***************************/
static void end_of_program ()

{             
	printf ("\n\n\n  give any key to stop "); 
    wgetch(window_window);                   
    endwin(); 
    exit(1);
}