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.\" Copyright (c) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2012 by Martin C. Shepherd
.\"
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
.\" copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
.\" "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
.\" without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
.\" distribute, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons
.\" to whom the Software is furnished to do so, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice(s) and this permission notice appear in all copies of
.\" the Software and that both the above copyright notice(s) and this
.\" permission notice appear in supporting documentation.
.\"
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
.\" OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT
.\" OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR
.\" HOLDERS INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, OR ANY SPECIAL
.\" INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING
.\" FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
.\" NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
.\" WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
.\" Except as contained in this notice, the name of a copyright holder
.\" shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use
.\" or other dealings in this Software without prior written authorization
.\" of the copyright holder.
.TH enhance @PROG_MANEXT@
.SH NAME
enhance - A program that adds command-line editing to third party programs.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
enhance command [ argument ... ]
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The \f3enhance\f1 program provides enhanced command-line editing
facilities to users of third party applications, to which one doesn't
have any source code. It does this by placing a pseudo-terminal
between the application and the real terminal. It uses the tecla
command-line editing library to read input from the real terminal,
then forwards each just completed input line to the application via
the pseudo-terminal. All output from the application is forwarded
back unchanged to the real terminal.
.sp
Whenever the application stops generating output for more than a tenth
of a second, the \f3enhance\f1 program treats the latest incomplete
output line as the prompt, and redisplays any incompleted input line
that the user has typed after it. Note that the small delay, which is
imperceptible to the user, isn't necessary for correct operation of
the program. It is just an optimization, designed to stop the input
line from being redisplayed so often that it slows down output.
.sp
Note that the user-level command-line editing facilities provided by
the Tecla library are documented in the \f3tecla(@MISC_MANEXT@)\f1 man page
.SH DEFICIENCIES
The one major problem that hasn't been solved yet, is how to deal with
applications that change whether typed input is echo'd by their
controlling terminal. For example, programs that ask for a password,
such as ftp and telnet, temporarily tell their controlling terminal
not to echo what the user types. Since this request goes to the
application side of the psuedo terminal, the \f3enhance\f1 program has
no way of knowing that this has happened, and continues to echo typed
input to its controlling terminal, while the user types their
password.
.sp
Furthermore, before executing the host application, the \f3enhance\f1
program initially sets the pseudo terminal to noecho mode, so that
everything that it sends to the program doesn't get redundantly
echoed. If a program that switches to noecho mode explicitly restores
echoing afterwards, rather than restoring the terminal modes that were
previously in force, then subsequently, every time that you enter a
new input line, a duplicate copy will be displayed on the next line.
.SH FILES
.nf
libtecla.a - The tecla library.
~/.teclarc - The tecla personal customization file.
.fi
.SH SEE ALSO
tecla(@MISC_MANEXT@), libtecla(@LIBR_MANEXT@)
.SH AUTHOR
Martin Shepherd (mcs@astro.caltech.edu)
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