VMS Help CC, Run-time functions, [w]inch  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

  Curses Screen Management function and macro that return the
  character at the current cursor position on the specified window
  without making changes to the window.  The inch macro acts on the
  stdscr window.

  Syntax:

       #include <curses.h>

       char inch();
       char winch(WINDOW *win);