Interesting idea: a demo shell to set and inspect features.

[rocky]

In working on the Perl equivalent of this, I had an A-ha! moment. One could write a little demo shell that handles readline-like commands like commands. For example,

• interpret commands .inputrc to bind keys to a readline function.
• run an .inputrc
• run commands set the modes (insert/overwrite, emacs/vi)
• provide commands to see status and modes.

Of course, changes entered would be directly apparent in subsequent editing, and the demo gives a sense of what's available and what's not.

It could have its own completion routine to show off that aspect as well. (I've started that on the Perl side too.) Programmers can then look at that code to understand how to customize for their own needs.

Of course, could be done outside of the package, but having it inside is kind of neat to start out inside.

pp
Finally, looking at the demo code, a programmer has a real sense of how to work.