a question about flushing input buffer

[Jacob A Hoehn]

I am expanding on the rolodex example given in the learning python book,
as a project for me to better learn python. I have run into a problem. I
have a class named Rolodex that uses the cmd module. One of the methods
for the class is to add a user to the rolodex. In the book example it just
has you enter the person's name and phone number. I want to alter this
so that you can also enter in additional information. So, in the add
method I have the following statement:

                print "Enter additional information (to stop, hit ^D):"
                try:
                        self.info[name] = sys.stdin.readlines()
                        sys.stdin.flush()
                except EOFError: return

The problem is, when I run the program I get the following:

ROLODEX> add foo
Enter phone number for foo: 911
Enter additional information (to stop, hit ^D):
hello
world
ROLODEX> list
=========================================
                 foo : 911                 
=========================================
ROLODEX> find foo
=========================================
The number for foo is 911.

Additional information:

hello
world
=========================================
ROLODEX> add guido
Enter phone number for guido: 111-1111
Enter additional information (to stop, hit ^D):
ROLODEX> list
=========================================
                 foo : 911                 
               guido : 111-1111            
=========================================
ROLODEX> find guido
=========================================
The number for guido is 111-1111.

Additional information:

=========================================
ROLODEX> 



It is not letting me enter in the additional information. It skips it as
if I had typed cntrl D. So, is there a buffer that I need to be flushing?
I thought sys.stdin.flush() would do that. Below is all of the code.
Thanks for any help you can give me and I appologize for the length of
this email.

Jacob Hoehn



#!/usr/local/bin/python

# rolodex, a simpler version of this exists in the oreilly
# learning python book... i added some stuff

import string, sys, pickle, cmd

class Rolodex(cmd.Cmd):

        def __init__(self):
                cmd.Cmd.__init__(self)
                self.prompt = "ROLODEX> "
                self.people = {}
                self.info = {}

        def help_add(self):
                print "Adds an entry (specifiy a name)"
        def do_add(self, name):
                if name == "": name = raw_input("Enter name: ")
                name = string.lower(name)
                if self.people.has_key(name):
                        option = ""
                        while 1:
                                if option == 'y': break
                                if option == 'n': return
                                option = raw_input("Name exists! " \
                                         "Overwrite? Enter [y/n]  ")
                phone = raw_input("Enter phone number for "+ name+": ")
                self.people[name] = phone
                print "Enter additional information (to stop, hit ^D):"
                try: 
                        self.info[name] = sys.stdin.readlines()
                        sys.stdin.flush()
                except EOFError: return

        def help_delete(self):
                print "Delete an entry (specify a name)"
        def do_delete(self, name):
                if name == "": name = raw_input("Enter name: ")
                name = string.lower(name)
                try:
                        del self.people[name]
                        del self.info[name]
                except KeyError:
                        print "Name not found"

        def help_find(self):
                print "Find an entry (specifiy a name)"
        def do_find(self, name):
                if name == "": name = raw_input("Enter name: ")
                name = string.lower(name)
                if self.people.has_key(name):
                        print '='*41
                        print "The number for %s is %s." % \
                        (name, self.people[name])
                        print "\nAdditional information:\n"
                        for line in self.info[name]: print line,
                        print '='*41
                else:
                        print "We have no record for %s." % (name,)

        def help_list(self):
                print "Prints the contents of the directory"
        def do_list(self, line):
                names = self.people.keys()
                if names == []: return
                names.sort()
                print '='*41
                for name in names:
                        print string.rjust(name, 20), ":", \
                        string.ljust(self.people[name], 20) 
                print '='*41

        def help_EOF(self):
                print "Quits the program"
        def do_EOF(self, line):
                sys.exit()

        def help_save(self):
                print "save the current state of affairs"
        def do_save(self, filename):
                if filename == "": 
                        filename = raw_input("Enter filename: ")
                saveFile = open(filename, 'w')
                pickle.dump(self.people, saveFile)
                pickle.dump(self.info, saveFile)

        def help_load(self):
                print "load a directory"
        def do_load(self, filename):
                if filename == "":
                        filename = raw_input("Enter filename: ")
                saveFile = open(filename, 'r')
                self.people = pickle.load(saveFile)
                self.info = pickle.load(saveFile)

if __name__ == '__main__':
        rolo = Rolodex()
        rolo.cmdloop()