NAME Term::Prompt - Perl extension for prompting a user for information SYNOPSIS use Term::Prompt; $value = &prompt(...); use Term::Prompt qw(termwrap); print &termwrap(...); use Term::Prompt qw(get_width); $terminal_width = get_width(); DESCRIPTION This perl routine will take a prompt, a default response and a list of possible responses and deal with the user interface, (and the user!), by displaying the prompt, showing the default, and checking to be sure that the response is one of the legal choices. --Mark Henderson Derived from im_prompt2.pl, from anlpasswd (see ftp://info.mcs.anl.gov/pub/systems/), with permission. Revisions for Perl 5, addition of alternative help text presentation, addition of floating point type, addition of regular expression type, addition of yes/no type, and line wrapping by E. Allen Smith. Additional "types" that could be added would be a phone type, a social security type, a generic numeric pattern type... The usage is the following: x = don't care, a = alpha-only, n = numeric-only, i = ignore case c = case sensitive, r = ranged by the low and high values f = floating-point, y = yes/no, e = regular expression - Added by Allen $result = &prompt("x", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default" ); $result = &prompt("a", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default" ); $result = &prompt("n", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default" ); The result will be a positive integer or 0. $result = &prompt("i", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default", "legal_options-ignore-case-list"); $result = &prompt("c", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default", "legal_options-case-sensitive-list"); $result = &prompt("r", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default", "low", "high"); $result = &prompt("f", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default"); The result will be a floating-point number. $result = &prompt("y", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default") The result will be 1 for y, 0 for n. A default not starting with y or n (or the uc versions of these) will be treated as y for positive, n for negative. $result = &prompt("e", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default", "regular expression"); (The regular expression for the last has ^ and $ surrounding it automatically; just put in .* before or after if you need to free it up before or after.) What, you might ask, is the difference between a "text prompt" and a "help prompt"? Think about the case where the "legal_options" look something like: "1-1000". Now consider what happens when you tell someone that "0" is not between 1-1000 and that the possible choices are: :) 1 2 3 4 5 ..... This is what the "help prompt" is for. It will work off of unique parts of "legal_options". This will actually be treated as a true "help prompt" if you capitalize the type of prompt, and otherwise will be treated as a list of options. Capitalizing the type of prompt will also mean that a return may be accepted as a response, even if there is no default; whether it actually is will depend on the type of prompt. Menus, for example, do not - necessarily - do this. The logic of a return being accepted as a response is controlled by the I flag (although this defaults to "yes" if the prompt type is capitalized); see below. $result = &prompt("m", { prompt => "text prompt", title => 'My Silly Menu', items => [ qw (foo bar baz biff spork boof akak) ], order => 'across', rows => 1, cols => 1, display_base => 1, return_base => 0, accept_multiple_selections => 0, accept_empty_selection => 0 }, "help prompt", "default"); @results = &prompt("m", { prompt => "text prompt", title => 'My Silly Menu', items => [ qw (foo bar baz biff spork boof akak) ], order => 'across', rows => 1, cols => 1, display_base => 1, return_base => 0, accept_multiple_selections => 0, accept_empty_selection => 0 }, "help prompt", "default"); This will create a menu with numbered items to select. You replace the normal *prompt* argument with a hash reference containing this information: This will create a menu with numbered items to select. You replace the normal *prompt* argument with a hash reference containing this information: prompt The prompt string. title Text printed above the menu. items An array reference to the list of text items to display. They will be numbered ascending in the order presented. order If set to 'across', the item numbers run across the menu: 1) foo 2) bar 3) baz 4) biff 5) spork 6) boof 7) akak If set to 'down', the item numbers run down the menu: 1) foo 4) biff 7) akak 2) bar 5) spork 3) baz 6) boof 'down' is the default. rows,cols Forces the number of rows and columns. Otherwise, the number of rows and columns is determined from the number of items and the maximum length of an item with its number. Usually, you would set rows = 1 or cols = 1 to force a non-wrapped layout. Setting both in tandem is untested. Cavet programmer. display_base,return_base Internally, the items are indexed the 'Perl' way, from 0 to scalar -1. The display_base is the number added to the index on the menu display. The return_base is the number added to the index before the reply is returned to the programmer. The defaults are 1 and 0, respectively. accept_multiple_selections When set to logical true (1 will suffice), more than one menu item may be selected. The return from *prompt()* will be an array or array ref, depending on how it is called. The default is 0. The return value is a single scalar containing the selection. accept_empty_selection When set to logical true (1 will suffice), if no items are selected, the menu will not be repeated and the 'empty' selection will be returned. The value of an 'empty' selection is an empty array or a reference to same, if *accept_multiple_selections* is in effect, or *undef* if not. Other Functions Part of Term::Prompt is the optionally exported function termwrap, which is used to wrap lines to the width of the currently selected filehandle (or to STDOUT or STDERR if the width of the current filehandle cannot be determined). It uses the GetTerminalSize function from Term::ReadKey then Text::Wrap. The get_width function used internally by it is likewise available for optional export; it defaults to the current value of Text::Wrap::columns if the width cannot be determined. AUTHOR Mark Henderson (henderson@mcs.anl.gov or systems@mcs.anl.gov) Primary contact author: Allen Smith (easmith@beatrice.rutgers.edu) Menu additions by Matthew O. Persico (persicom@acedsl.com) SEE ALSO perl, Term::ReadKey, and Text::Wrap.