Existing Text in read()?

Hi! I'm trying to get a text field (read()) to have something already there before the user inputs any text. Does anyone know how to do this?

modify the sLine variable at the top of the read function

You can do

os.queueEvent("char", "Starting text")
input = read()

This has the side effect of the starting cursor in read still being after the first character
EDIT: It doesn't if you put os.queueEvent("key", keys["end"]) between where you queue the message and read()

You could first write something infront of it like so:

write("Enter Password: ")
local input = read()

And for convenience sake you can put it into a function:

local function textRead( text )
  write( text )
  return read()
end

This way you can comfortably use textRead() whenever you want to write something before an input:

local pwd = textRead("Please Enter your Password: ")

Well, here's what you might do:

prevtext = "What's your name? | Answer: "
write(prevtext)
aftertext = read()
aftertext = (prevtext..aftertext)

I think the last line will work..

Well I wanted the text there that you can edit the existing text too.

My suggestion will do that. It makes it so that read will pull the starting text queued as a char event and put it there before you start writing.

faubiguy, on 20 October 2012 - 05:46 AM said:

My suggestion will do that. It makes it so that read will pull the starting text queued as a char event and put it there before you start writing.

I tried your solution it works but were right, the cursor starts at the second character

Use os.queueEvent("key", keys["end"]) after queueing the message but before calling read()

Why don't you just copy read and make your own function? It is open source in bios.lua. Should be trivial to prefill the character buffer.

Edit: as was suggested by pixeltoast.

read() can be passed a history table. Passing a table containing the string and queuing an up-arrow key event may do what you wish. Copying read() and adding this (very simple) feature is certainly the best way to do this, though.