rlwrap

Remiss for not mentioning "rlwrap": https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap ...basically "readline in a can" that you can use to improve text input of other programs. I forget if it was RMS or ESR that really wanted to hold "readline" away from corporations, so it's licensed as GPLv3 (not v2), and he explicitly wanted it to _not_ be LGPL (ie: embeddable). My crazy readline/bash tip is `ESC, .` (or maybe `alt+.`, I'm not 100% sure, random search result here: https://gist.github.com/tuxfight3r/60051ac67c5f0445efee ). Basically it up-arrows through the last "word" of previous commands, adding it to the current command. Example: mkdir foo cd `esc, .` => cd foo vim bar.txt cp `esc, .` baz.txt => cp bar.txt baz.txt It's crucial in that it reduces the number of keystrokes, and avoids typing errors completely, as you're "recalli

Along the same lines, I find this little utility in standard linux repos to be amazing. Try it on ed: `rlwrap ed`. Package: rlwrap [...] Homepage: https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap Description-en: readline feature command line wrapper This package provides a small utility that uses the GNU readline library to allow the editing of keyboard input for any other command. Input history is remembered across invocations, separately for each command; history completion and search work as in bash and completion word lists can be specified on the command line.

Possibly more universal, but there are also tools like rlwrap [1] that adds readline support to programs that don't have it. From the docs apparently the readline library ships a similar tool ootb nowadays but I haven't tried that and just noticed now when I wanted to share the rlwrap link. [1] https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap

Friends if you dont know: you can add readline support to LOTS of things, especially custom scripts and tools with a prompt by just calling the program with rlwrap. > rlwrap is a 'readline wrapper', a small utility that uses the GNU Readline library to allow the editing of keyboard input for any command. https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap

rlwrap [1] may be able to help [1] https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap

Dropping a link to `rlwrap` in case anyone is not familiar with it: https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap Note that I've never tried it myself with the mysql/mariadb CLI, but I have used it with other tools, and it's brilliant.

I use it for browsing documentation and code files, e.g. to browse syscall manpages: apropos -s 2 '.*' | fzf --height=100% --preview-window=down:wrap --preview='man -s 2 {1}' --bind='alt-v:execute(man -s 2 {1}),enter:execute(man -s 2 {1})' You can also use it with rlwrap for browsing commandline history of arbitrary REPLs (https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap/blob/fb60c9aa7579d6b68f2...)

Have you experimented with something like rlwrap? https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap

> if you have to interact with something that has no readline See also https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap

Not a huge fan of ML for the Working Programmer, personally. I'd love to see (or one day write) the equivalent of Practical Common Lisp (which itself needs an update at this point) because MftWP is sooo dated. But I can see how it's a decent enough intro. Regarding your points: 1. Yeah editor support sucks. I normally edit in text mode with my own minimal keyword highlighting or ocaml-mode. 2. Poly/ML can definitely generate binaries! Most distros ship with `polyc` that will build the binary for you. But this is just a shell script around opening the REPL and calling some dump image function (like how you build a binary on SBCL). MLton and Poly/ML definitely allow you to build binaries. I don't know about SML/NJ. 3. For sure a pain. I use rlwrap [0] to work around this, which is ultimately simple enough! 4. Interesting! I personally find