NAME
    Term::Prompt - Perl extension for prompting a user for information

SYNOPSIS
        use Term::Prompt;
        $value = &prompt(...);

        use Term::Prompt qw(termwrap);
        print &termwrap(...);

        $Term::Prompt::MULTILINE_INDENT = '';

DESCRIPTION
    This perl routine will take a prompt, a default response and a list of
    possible responses and deal with the user interface, (and the user!), by
    displaying the prompt, showing the default, and checking to be sure that
    the response is one of the legal choices. --Mark Henderson

    Derived from im_prompt2.pl, from anlpasswd (see
    ftp://info.mcs.anl.gov/pub/systems/), with permission. Revisions for
    Perl 5, addition of alternative help text presentation, addition of
    floating point type, addition of regular expression type, addition of
    yes/no type, and line wrapping by E. Allen Smith.

    Addition of menu functionality and $Term::Prompt::MULTILINE_INDENT by
    Matthew Persico.

    Additional "types" that could be added would be a phone type, a social
    security type, a generic numeric pattern type...

    The usage is the following:

     x = do not care, a = alpha-only, n = numeric-only, i = ignore case
     c = case sensitive, r = ranged by the low and high values
     f = floating-point, y = yes/no, e = regular expression - Added by Allen
     m = menu - Added by Matthew

     $result = &prompt("x", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default" );

    $result is whatever the user types.

     $result = &prompt("a", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default" );

    $result is a single "word" consisting of [A-Za-z] only. The response is
    rejected until it conforms.

     $result = &prompt("n", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default" );

    The result will be a positive integer or 0.

     $result = &prompt("-n", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default" );

    The result will be a negative integer or 0.

     $result = &prompt("+-n", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default" );

    The result will be a any integer or 0.

     $result = &prompt("i", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default",
                             "legal_options-ignore-case-list");

     $result = &prompt("c", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default",
                             "legal_options-case-sensitive-list");

     $result = &prompt("r", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default",
                           "low", "high");

     $result = &prompt("f", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default");

    The result will be a floating-point number.

     $result = &prompt("y", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default")

    The result will be 1 for y, 0 for n. A default not starting with y or n
    (or the uc versions of these) will be treated as y for positive, n for
    negative.

     $result = &prompt("e", "text prompt", "help prompt", "default",
                           "regular expression");

    The regular expression for the last has ^ and $ surrounding it
    automatically; just put in .* before or after if you need to free it up
    before or after. - Allen

    What, you might ask, is the difference between a "text prompt" and a
    "help prompt"? Think about the case where the "legal_options" look
    something like: "1-1000". Now consider what happens when you tell
    someone that "0" is not between 1-1000 and that the possible choices
    are: :) 1 2 3 4 5 ..... This is what the "help prompt" is for.

    It will work off of unique parts of "legal_options".

    Changed by Allen - if you capitalize the type of prompt, it will be
    treated as a true "help prompt"; that is, it will be printed ONLY if the
    menu has to be redisplayed due to and entry error. Otherwise, it will be
    treated as a list of options and displayed only the first time the menu
    is displayed.

    Capitalizing the type of prompt will also mean that a return may be
    accepted as a response, even if there is no default; whether it actually
    is will depend on the type of prompt. Menus, for example, do not do
    this. The logic of a return being accepted as a response is controlled
    by the *no_selection_accepted* flag; see below.

     $result = &prompt("m", {
                             prompt           => "text prompt",
                             title            => 'My Silly Menu',
                             items            => [ qw (foo bar baz biff spork boof akak) ],
                             order            => 'across',
                             rows             => 1,
                             cols             => 1,
                             display_base     => 1,
                             return_base      => 0,
                             accept_multiple_selections => 0,
                             accept_empty_selection     => 0
                            },
                       "help prompt", "default");

     @results = &prompt("m", {
                              prompt           => "text prompt",
                              title            => 'My Silly Menu',
                              items            => [ qw (foo bar baz biff spork boof akak) ],
                              order            => 'across',
                              rows             => 1,
                              cols             => 1,
                              display_base     => 1,
                              return_base      => 0,
                              accept_multiple_selections => 0,
                              accept_empty_selection     => 0
                             },
                        "help prompt", "default");

    This will create a menu with numbered items to select. You replace the
    normal *prompt* argument with a hash reference containing this
    information:

    prompt
    The prompt string.

    title
    Text printed above the menu.

    items
    An array reference to the list of text items to display. They will be
    numbered ascending in the order presented.

    order
    If set to 'across', the item numbers run across the menu:

     1) foo    2) bar    3) baz
     4) biff   5) spork  6) boof
     7) akak

    If set to 'down', the item numbers run down the menu:

     1) foo    4) biff   7) akak
     2) bar    5) spork
     3) baz    6) boof

    'down' is the default.

    rows,cols
    Forces the number of rows and columns. Otherwise, the number of rows and
    columns is determined from the number of items and the maximum length of
    an item with its number.

    Usually, you would set rows = 1 or cols = 1 to force a non-wrapped
    layout. Setting both in tandem is untested. Cavet programmer.

    display_base,return_base
    Internally, the items are indexed the 'Perl' way, from 0 to scalar -1.
    The display_base is the number added to the index on the menu display.
    The return_base is the number added to the index before the reply is
    returned to the programmer.

    The defaults are 1 and 0, respectively.

    accept_multiple_selections
    When set to logical true (1 will suffice), more than one menu item may
    be selected. The return from *prompt()* will be an array or array ref,
    depending on how it is called.

    The default is 0. The return value is a single scalar containing the
    selection.

    accept_empty_selection
    When set to logical true (1 will suffice), if no items are selected, the
    menu will not be repeated and the 'empty' selection will be returned.
    The value of an 'empty' selection is an empty array or a reference to
    same, if *accept_multiple_selections* is in effect, or *undef* if not.

  Other Functions and Variables
    termwrap
    Part of Term::Prompt is the optionally exported function termwrap, which
    is used to wrap lines to the width of the currently selected filehandle
    (or to STDOUT or STDERR if the width of the current filehandle cannot be
    determined). It uses the GetTerminalSize function from Term::ReadKey
    then Text::Wrap.

    MULTILINE_INDENT
    This package variable holds the string to be used to indent lines of a
    multiline prompt, after the first line. The default is "\t", which is
    how the module worked before the variable was exposed. If yo do not want
    ANY indentation:

     $Term::Prompt::MULTILINE_INDENT = '';

AUTHOR
    Mark Henderson (henderson@mcs.anl.gov or systems@mcs.anl.gov)

    Primary contact author: Allen Smith (easmith@beatrice.rutgers.edu)

    Menu additions by Matthew O. Persico (persicom@acedsl.com)

SEE ALSO
    perl, Term::ReadKey, and Text::Wrap.

