Escape sequences (colour) and padding with "%8s"%

[Tim Chase]

> I used escape sequences to produce colour output, but a construct like
> 
> print "%8s" % str_with_escape
> 
> doesn't do the right thing. I suppose the padding counts the escape
> characters, too.
> 
> What could be a solution?

You omit half of the equation:  the contents of str_with_escape.

 >>> print "hello %c[1mworld%c[0m" % (27, 27)

works just fine for me in Linux (it chokes a bit on Win32 under 
cmd.exe, printing the actual escape character, rather than 
interpreting it as an ANSI control sequence).

One can even do fancy stuff like:

 >>> mapping = {'bold': '\x1b[1m', 'normal':'\x1b[0m', 
'blue':'\x1b[34m'}
 >>> print "this has some %(bold)sbold%(normal)s text and some 
%(blue)sblue%(normal)s text and some %(bold)s%(blue)stext that is 
bold and blue%(normal)s in it" % mapping

and it works with %8s as well.

You might prefer to use the standard curses library rather than 
try and roll your own...

-tkc