Re: Bash - various feature requests

[Richard Neill]

> > 5)An enhancement to read/readline, such that one can specify the initial 
> > value with which the buffer is filled.
> >
> > Currently, we can do:
> >
> >   read -ep 'Enter your name: ' NAME
> >
> > and I might type "Richad Neill".      #Note the deliberate typo.
> >
> > If the script recognises this as invalid, the best it can do is:
> >
> >   echo "Name not recognised"
> >   read -ep 'Re-enter your name: ' NAME
> >
> > and the user must retype it in full.
> > I'd like to propose adding an "-i" option for initial value:
> >
> >   echo "Name not recognised"
> >   read -ep "Please correct your name: " -i "$NAME"
> >
> > The shell prints:
> >   Please correct your name: Richad Neill
> > where the latter part is now editable.
> >
> > Thus the really nice editing features of readline can be used for 
> > updating values already stored in variables. This is extremely useful 
> > when the value is quite long.
>
> Is this the same as
>     read -ep "Please correct your name: $NAME" NAME
> ?

No - that isn't what I meant. What I want to do is:
   1)Print the text:
                "Please correct your name: "
        without a trailing newline.

   2)Create an editable buffer (using readline), which is initialised
     with the current value of the variable $NAME and printed to screen.

   3)The user edits the buffer as desired, and when he presses ENTER, 
its contents is assigned to the variable NAME.


In the example I gave, with my proposed -i option, the script would 
present the user with this:

    Please correct your name: Richad Neill
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^*

the cursor position starts at the *, but can be moved around anywhere 
within the ^^^^. So the typo could be corrected by keying:

Alt-B  Ctrl-B, Ctrl-B, r, ENTER


whereas currently, the user must type in the full string from scratch.



Is that clear? Sorry it's hard to explain without a diagram.

Richard