[Patches] [Patch #102891] Alternative readline module

[Guido van Rossum]

> On Tue, Jan 16, 2001 at 03:37:44PM -0500, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> > A hook exists: you can assign a readline-ish function to
> > PyOS_ReadlineFunctionPointer.
> 
> You can't do that from within Python code though, can you?

No, but you could easily write a little extension that sets it to a C
function that can call an arbitrary Python code.  (Just realize that
it's called without the Python global interpreter lock held.)

> Although pyrl is not nearly ready for the prime time, I think the
> general approach is a good one long term.  Command line editing
> is not a performance critical task.  Python code is fast enough.
> Moving this task to Python should allow the editor to be made
> cross platform more easily.

Sadly, this isn't the case -- pyrl uses curses and/or termios calls
that are highly Unix specific. :-)

> Also, it should be easier to add
> more advanced features.  I would like the editor to work like the
> Z shell editor in that you can edit whole blocks.  For example,
> if I enter:
> 
>     for i in range(10):
>         print i
> 
> and press up arrow I would be able to edit the whole for loop as
> a block.

Just use IDLE -- it has all that.  Character cell interfaces aren't
worth the effort of keeping up.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)