[Richard Suchenwirth] 2002-07-29 - The behavior of some shells (even including cmd.exe!) to complete commands or filenames on is occasionally asked from Tcl too. Here is a quick shot of a mini-console with an entry, that does command completion, a label where multiple alternatives are shown, and a text widget where the command and its result (or error message) are displayed when was hit: ---- proc complete {varName infoName} { upvar 1 $varName var upvar 1 $infoName info if {[llength $var]==1} { set cmds [info commands $var*] if {[llength $cmds]==1} { set var "$cmds " ;# added complementary blank } elseif {[llength $cmds]>1} { set info [lsort $cmds] ;# make choices available for display set var [longestCommonPrefix $cmds] ;# partial completion (1) } else bell } } # (1): longestCommonPrefix is available on [Additional string functions] entry .e -textvar entry bind .e {complete entry info; %W icursor end; break} bind .e {catch $entry res; .t insert end "%% $entry\n$res\n"} label .info -textvar info -anchor w -width 60 text .t pack .e .info -fill x pack .t -fill both -expand 1 ---- Further extensions that one could add: * try subcommands for well-known commands like [string], [package], [info], ... * if a word starts with $, check [[info vars]] of the rest of string * try [glob] on other than first word ---- Use [tclreadline] to enable TAB command, variable and arguments complition in your interpreter. For [tclsh] put to your `~/.tclshrc` (you MUST replace `^A`, `^B` and `^[` with corresponding Control-character, use `C-q C-a`, etc in [Emacs] editor): if {$tcl_interactive} { catch { package require tclreadline namespace eval tclreadline { if ([regexp "^(xterm|eterm-color)" "$::env(TERM)"]) { proc prompt1 {} { return "^A^[\[0;31m^[\[1m^Btcl>^A^[\[0m^B " } proc prompt2 {} { return "^A^[\[0;31m^B...> ^A^[\[0m^B" } } { proc prompt1 {} { return "tcl> " } proc prompt2 {} { return "...> " } } } ::tclreadline::Loop } } Read `tclreadline(3tcl)` man page and "Readline Init File" section in `info readline` for more info. Some funny `~/.inputrc` settings: # Invoke an editor on the current command line, and execute the result as # shell commands. Bash attempts to invoke $FCEDIT, $EDITOR, and emacs as the # editor, in that order. "\C-x\C-e": edit-and-execute-command # Define my favorite Emacs key bindings. "\C-@": set-mark "\C-w": kill-region "\M-w": copy-region-as-kill # Ctrl+Left/Right to move by whole words. "\e[1;5C": forward-word "\e[1;5D": backward-word # Same with Shift pressed. "\e[1;6C": forward-word "\e[1;6D": backward-word # Ctrl+Backspace/Delete to delete whole words. "\e[3;5~": kill-word "\C-_": backward-kill-word # UP/DOWN filter history by typed string as prefix. "\e[A": history-search-backward "\C-p": history-search-backward "\eOA": history-search-backward "\e[B": history-search-forward "\C-n": history-search-forward "\eOB": history-search-forward # Use 'Control+TAB' for cycling possible completion in bash. "\e[1;5I": menu-complete ---- [tkcon] has routines for expanding pathnames, command names and variable names (::tkcon::Expand* in the code). These have also been carried over into the updated console of the Tcl core. ---- a variant with instant completion [Command completion in the iFile console] ---- [Arts and crafts of Tcl-Tk programming]