Re: promptcr workaround

[Wayne Davison <wayned@users.sourceforge.net>]

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What do folks think of including this idea in the FAQ?  I've attached a
patch that does this.

..wayne..

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--- Etc/FAQ.yo	17 Jan 2005 10:49:51 -0000	1.15
+++ Etc/FAQ.yo	1 Mar 2005 17:03:56 -0000
@@ -1667,15 +1667,25 @@ sect(How do I prevent the prompt overwri
     % echo -n foo
     % 
   )
-  and the tt(foo) has been overwritten by the prompt tt(%).  The answer is
-  simple:  put tt(unsetopt promptcr) in your tt(.zshrc).  The option \
-  tt(PROMPT_CR),
-  to print a carriage return before a new prompt, is set by default because
-  a prompt at the right hand side (mytt($RPROMPT), mytt($RPS1)) will not appear
-  in the right place, and multi-line editing will be confused about the line
-  position, unless the line starts in the left hand column.  Apart from
-  tt(PROMPT_CR), you can force this to happen by putting a newline in the
-  prompt (see question link(3.13)(313) for that).
+  and the tt(foo) has been overwritten by the prompt tt(%).  The reason this
+  happens is that the option tt(PROMPT_CR) is enabled by default, and it
+  outputs a carriage return before the prompt in order to ensure that the
+  line editor knows what column it is in (this is needed to position the
+  right-side prompt correctly (mytt($RPROMPT), mytt($RPS1)) and to avoid screen
+  corruption when performing line editing).  If you add tt(unsetopt promptcr)
+  to your tt(.zshrc), you will see any partial output, but your screen may
+  look weird until you press return or refresh the screen.  A better
+  solution for many terminals is to define a precmd function that outputs
+  a screen-width of spaces, like this:
+  verb(
+    function precmd {
+      echo -n ${(l:$COLUMNS:::):-}
+    }
+  )
+  That precmd function will only bump the screen down to a new line if
+  there was output on the prompt line, otherwise the extra spaces get
+  removed by the tt(PROMPT_CR) action.  One final alternative is to put a
+  newline in your prompt -- see question link(3.13)(313) for that.
 
 
 sect(What's wrong with cut and paste on my xterm?)