toggle_cbreak

Simple lib to turn cbreak mode on and off

Installation

pip install toggle_cbreak

Quickstart

from toggle_cbreak import cbreak_off, cbreak_on

# by default, our terminal is now in cooked mode

cbreak_on() # turns on cbreak mode

# now, we are in cbreak mode

cbreak_off()

# now, we are in cooked mode again

Some context on terminal modes

Our terminal has 3 modes:

• cooked mode (default)
• raw mode
• cbreak mode

Cooked mode (default)

• data is preprocessed before being given to program
• system intercepts special characters, and gives special behaviour to them
  • eg. Backspace, Control-C, etc
• Let's say you type "ABC<Backspace>D"
  • in cooked mode, this is processed as "ABD"
  • the <Backspace> in a way, deletes our C

Raw mode

• data is passed as it is to program
• system does not interpret special characters as special characters
• Let's say you type "ABC<Backspace>D"
  • "ABC<Backspace>D" itself is given to our program
  • no processing done

Cbreak mode

• a mode between cooked mode and raw mode
• only certain characters eg. Control-C will be processed as special characters

Simple example (copy paste this and try it out)

from toggle_cbreak import cbreak_off, cbreak_on

firstname = input("(cooked mode) Enter first name: ")

cbreak_on()

print(
    "(cbreak mode) Enter some text. "
    "Whatever you type will be repeated multiple times as you type. "
    "Hit Control-C to escape this mode."
)

try:
    while True:
        char = sys.stdin.read(1)
        print(char * random.randrange(1, 4), end="", flush=True)
except KeyboardInterrupt:
    pass

cbreak_off()
print("\nBack to normal cooked mode.\n")

lastname = input("(cooked mode) Enter last name: ")

print(f"{firstname=} {lastname=}")