[Python-Dev] Incorrect documentation of the raw_input built-in function

[Isaac Morland]

On Thu, 24 Jan 2008, skip at pobox.com wrote:

>    Mike> 2. Is this really the hard-coded behavior we want?  I don't think
>    Mike>    my use-case is that odd; in fact, what I find very odd is that
>    Mike>    the prompt output is send to stderr.  I mean, I'm printing the
>    Mike>    prompt for a question, not some error message. Can there not at
>    Mike>    least be an optional parameter to indicate that you want the
>    Mike>    output sent to stdout rather than stderr?
>
> I can think of situations where you don't want the output to go to stdout
> either (suppose it's the regular output of the file you want to save to a
> file).  Having a choice seems the best route.

What about an option (maybe even a default) to send the prompt to stdin?

The Postgres command line interface psql appears to do this:

$ psql 2>&1 >/dev/null
Password:
$

(I typed my password and then I quit by typing ^D; if I type the wrong 
password, it looks the same on screen but it quits right away without 
waiting for ^D)

I think ssh also does this when it needs to prompt for a password.

Really the prompt is part of the input, not part of the output, in a 
certain sense.  Have people actually verified that the prompt is really 
sent to stderr right now by using 2>/dev/null to attempt to suppress it?

Isaac Morland			CSCF Web Guru
DC 2554C, x36650		WWW Software Specialist