OT:programmin questions

[David Bellows <bfootdav@mindspring.com>]

Hello everyone,

First off, this is way off topic, but you people are the only ones I 
know who can program.  So to avoid a further waste of this list's 
bandwidth it would probably be better to send any replies to me and not 
the list.

I have put a computer together that is going to be a Debian based 
multi-media box -- CD player, ogg jukebox, DVD,  and maybe a few games 
(all with output to my TV -- the hardware is working and XMMS is 
constantly running, but now I want to expand).  Eventually I'll want to 
have a fancy graphical interface (kind of like TiVo's) but for now I 
just want stuff to work and so am running a bash script in an Xterm.  I 
have a nice learning remote control that can send keyboard signals to 
the computer via an IR keyboard receiver.  The enclosed program will 
demonstrate what I have and give a basic idea of what I'm doing.  I am 
not a programmer as you'll quickly notice.  My problem is that I have 
to enter a key followed by ENTER.  This is obviously cumbersome when 
using a remote control.  Does bash have a way around this?  Should I be 
using another language?  If the latter, I would prefer, for now, a 
scripting language -- thinking this would be easier to figure out as I 
need to learn new things.

#!/bin/sh
while [ "$choice" != q ]
do
read choice
case "$choice" in
    a) /usr/local/bin/jac -P1;; #jac is a command line CD player
    b) /usr/local/bin/jac -P5;;
    c) /usr/local/bin/jac -k;;
    #First kill the CD and then start DVD player
    d) /usr/local/bin/jac -k; /usr/local/bin/ogle -u cli;; 
    q) /usr/local/bin/jac -k;;
esac
done
exit 0

Thanks everyone.  A push in the right direction might be all I need, 
maybe even just some good online resources that can get me going 
quickly.  

David Bellows