shell tab emulation

tab.pl

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

use Term::ReadKey;

# make STDOUT hot
$| = 1;
$string = '';
$done = 0;
# get your dir listing
opendir($dh, '.');
@dir = sort readdir($dh);
closedir $dh;

# input loop
while (!$done) {
	# read a key
	while (defined ($key = ReadKey(-1))) {
		# if it's a tab, get the next thing in the directory
		if ($key =~ /\t/) {
			# treat dir as circular list
			$cur = shift(@dir);
			# 'clear' the input
			print "\b" x (length($string));
			print " " x (length($string));
			print "\b" x (length($string));
			$string = $cur;
			push(@dir, $cur);
		}
		# return means we're done
		elsif ($key =~ /\r/) {
			$done = 1;
			last;
		}
		# otherwise add to input string
		else {
			$string .= $key;
			# don't forget to clear to keep things looking normal
			print "\b" x (length($string) - 1);
		}
		print $string;
	}
}

print "\nyou have selected: $string\n";

Script for getting user input while emulating the shell functionality of directory/file listing using tab.