How to write a simple shell loop in python?

[Saul Spatz]

Dietrich Bollmann wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to write a simple shell loop in Python.
> 
> My simple approach works fine - but the first output line after entering
> something is always indented by one blank.  
> 
> Is there any logic explanation for this?  
> How can I get rid of the blank?
> Is there a smarter way to write a simple shell loop which would work
> better?
> 
> Thanks, Dietrich
> 
> 
> Here my approach:
> 
> $ python
> Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Jan  4 2009, 17:40:26) 
> [GCC 4.3.2] on linux2
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>> import sys    
>>>> while (1):
> ...     print "$ ",
> ...     input = sys.stdin.readline()
> ...     input = input.strip()
> ...     print input
> ...     print input
> ...     print input
> ... 
> $ one
>  one
> one
> one
> $ two
>  two
> two
> two
> $ three
>  three
> three
> three
> $ 
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 3, in <module>
> KeyboardInterrupt
> 
> 
Strange.  I don't have an explanation, but experiment shows that if you 
change print "$ ", to print "$ " (that is, leave out the comma) then the 
leading blank is not printed.  This behavior doesn't depend on the 
"print input" statement's being in a loop.

By the way, you don't need parens around the loop guard in python:
while 1: (or as I prefer, while True:) work just fine.

Saul