Re: bash doesn't display user-typed characters; can interfere with COPY/PASTE

[L A Walsh]

On 2020/12/08 06:28, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> The end result is that it's basically impossible to preserve the original
> whitespace of your source material across a terminal copy/paste operation.
> So don't count on that.
>   
----
   If you use a random terminal to copy/paste, sure, but if you use a 
specific
product that maintains fidelity, then it's not true.


   Especially nice are term-progs that automatically reflow text *as 
you resize*
the terminal.  Like if you see 100 characters written to an 80-column 
terminal,
that line wraps the text, when you expand the width, you retain the original
white space.  That's why programs that don't preserve what you wrote are 
annoying.
And note -- you see the reflow in real-time as you change dimensions -- 
not just
at the end.

   Imagine working on a terminal that only displayed upper case even if the
differentiation was saved when stored.  You can't really see the text as 
"it is"
when you enter it or re-edit it.  With it putting in something different on
display than what is really there, you get things like (tab chars between
each letter):
>  echo "a b       c       d       e       f       g       h       
i       j       k       l       m       n       o       p       q       
r       s       t       a       b       c       d       e       f       
g       h       i       j       k       l       m       n       o       
p       q       r       s       t"
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 
q r s t

If you re-edit a line with tabs in it that displays like it does in the 
bottom
line, above (tabs ever 2 spaces), the re-edited "line" takes up 4 lines.