Feature request - Echo Back chars as they are typed

[marshallbrown123]

Hi There, Thanks for the efforts in writing this terminal

One small improvement could be to echo back the characters as they are typed at the console (and consume the backspace)

Here's what I put in the readBytesToEOL function

	//only bother echoing if it is from a terminal
	if (mode() == Mode::User){
		//mkb edit - echo back typed char's 
		if ( c == '\r' || c == '\n' ) {
			println("");
			showPrompt();
		}
		else{
			print((char)c);
		}

		//mkb edit (consume backspace)
		if (c == '\b'){
			count--;
			continue;
		}
	}

and here is the entire function for anyone else that may want to cut and paste it.

 size_t SerialUI::readBytesToEOL(char* buffer, size_t max_length, bool left_trim){
// a modified version of readBytesUntil, from Arduino Stream,  LGPLed
// Copyright (c) 2010 David A. Mellis.
size_t count = 0;
unsigned long millistimeout = PLATFORM_NOW_MILLIS() + timeout();
bool infiniteWaitForEOL = (timeout() < 1);
bool isEndline = false;

memset(buffer, 0, max_length); // forced clean


// loop around until we either
//  - get an EOL;
//  - accumulate max_length chars; or
//  - timeout
do {

	if (!this->available()) {
		// nothing in queue, sync & loop
		delegateSynch(true);
		continue;
	}

	// get next char
	int c = read();


	if (c < 0) {
		// sanity check fail
		continue;
	}


	// flag if it's an endline
	if ( c == '\r' || c == '\n' ) {
		isEndline = true;
	} else {
		isEndline = false;
	}

	//mkb edit only bother echoing if it is from a terminal
	if (mode() == Mode::User){
		//mkb edit - echo back typed char's 
		if ( c == '\r' || c == '\n' ) {
			println("");
			showPrompt();
		}
		else{
			print((char)c);
		}

		//mkb edit (consume backspace)
		if (c == '\b'){
			count--;
			continue;
		}
	}


	// if we're left trimming, do so.
	if (left_trim) {

		if (isEndline || c == ' ' || c == '\t') {
			// left trimming and this is whitespace: throw it away
			// and loop
			continue;
		}

		// we were left trimming, but are now done
		left_trim = false;
	}

	if (isEndline || c == read_terminator_char ) {
		// we hit the EOL
		return count;
	}


	// still accumulating, add it to ret buf
	buffer[count++] = (char) c;


} while ( (count < max_length) && (infiniteWaitForEOL || (PLATFORM_NOW_MILLIS() < millistimeout) ));

return count;

}

[psychogenic]

Cool, thanks for the input/info/code.

I'm in the midst of a major rewrite of SerialUI to both modernize it and hopefully reduce it's footprint.

I will try to integrate these mods into the new codebase.

Thanks again! Pat D