Readline functionality on windows with python 2.7

Question

I need to import the readline functionality in a program written in python. I am currently using version 2.7 and the 3rd party packages I have seen only work up to version 2.6. Does anyone know of a 3rd party readline package for Windows with Python 2.7?

Salomon

Answer 1

I believe pyreadline was designed just for this.

easy_install pyreadline
or:
pip install pyreadline

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyreadline

Also, use the following for forward/reverse compatibility:

try:
  import readline
except ImportError:
  import pyreadline as readline

Camiecamila

Glad to hear it! If it causes you any problems please post back in reply. – Camiecamila

+1 @BenBurns: May I ask how the platform compability works? "If available, import pyreadline (and call it readline). If not available, import readline directly." Is that correct? That is, is the preference for the pyreadline version over the plain readline? Thanks. – Candless

Yes, but "platform compatibility" was the wrong phrase to use - "forward portability" is more appropriate. This try/except ImportError pattern allows you to use backported modules on older python releases but still run the code without modification on newer releases. – Camiecamila

Note that pyreadline appears to no longer be maintained and has some significant bugs. – Caerleon

Answer 2

Unfortunately, in 2019, pyreadline isn't really developed anymore.

It's far from a "drop-in" replacement, but you could look into Python Prompt Toolkit. It provides tab-completion and then some on just about every platform there is. If you're still using Python 2, you really should upgrade but the Prompt Toolkit does appear to support Python 2 with from __future__ import unicode_literals.

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