Description

jQuery plugin which adds basic readline functionality to any html element. Goal is to mimic essential readline behavior from the original. Uses jquery UI 1.8.5 autocomplete widget and the hotkeys.js plugin for keybindings.

Setup

Add javascript tags:

<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.3/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'></script>
<script src='jquery.hotkeys.js' type='text/javascript'></script>
<script src="jquery.ui.autocomplete.min.js" type='text/javascript'></script>
<script src='jquery.readline.js' type='text/javascript'></script>

Assuming you have an html element with id #input:

<script type='text/javascript'>
  $(document).ready( function(){ $('#input').readline() });
</script>

For options to pass to $.fn.readline(), see documentation in the source.

Once an element is readline-enabled, it needs to have some event (i.e. submit) that adds to the history with $.readline.addHistory(). See demo.html for an example.

Keybindings

• previous line: control-p, up arrow
• next line: control-n, down arrow
• clear line: control-u
• start search history: control-r
• stop search history: control-g
• custom autocompletion: tab

Demo

For a simple demo, simply open demo.html in a browser and enter a few lines. For a more advanced example, see jrepl.

Todo

• Fix history not saving element's current text
• Forward/backward word keybindings
• Fix exiting search history on an active menu item
• Display tab completion in multiple columns
• Deal with autocompletion dependence on images