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Show HN: Linenoise NG – GNU Readline Replacement, with UTF8 and Windows (BSD)

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Re: Show HN: Linenoise NG – GNU Readline Replacement, with UTF8 and Windows (BSD)

#7
post #5

All of this to get around the GPL. Boo!

Yes, it is a shame that there are so many programs out there, that do not provide good line support because of the GPL issue.

Perhaps they should use the GPL.

Re: Show HN: Linenoise NG – GNU Readline Replacement, with UTF8 and Windows (BSD)

#9
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it is a shame that there are so many programs out there, that do not provide good line support because of the GPL issue.

Perhaps they should use the GPL.

Why? I assume there are good reasons for not being GPL. Redis for example is BSD. But it cannot use readline because of it is not LGPL.

Re: Show HN: Linenoise NG – GNU Readline Replacement, with UTF8 and Windows (BSD)

#10
I'm all for replacing readline. It's an ancient, very closely linked to the everyday experience of using the command line, and not very good. I want my REPLs to have things like syntax highlighting and decent tab completion UI, and readline has positioned itself to have a monopoly on the ability to implement these things but failed to deliver.

But this isn't addressing the real problem, which is that readline gets conjoined with the programs that use it. So if I want to write my own line editor, I have to significantly modify every program I want to use it in, which is enough of an obstacle that I won't do it (and neither will others). Nevermind more difficult architectural problems, like making editing local when on high-latency connections. Still, having a BSD-licensed line editor to start from may be helpful for whoever takes on that project some day.

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