Non blocking GNU readline usage example for python, proof of concept

kisscli.py

import sys
from select import select
import socket
import readline

# HACK - python doesn't include a binding to rl_callback_read_char
import readline
import ctypes

rl_lib = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary("libreadline.so")

readline.callback_handler_remove = rl_lib.rl_callback_handler_remove
readline.callback_read_char = rl_lib.rl_callback_read_char

# the callback needs special treatment:
rlcallbackfunctype = ctypes.CFUNCTYPE(ctypes.c_void_p, ctypes.c_char_p)

def setcallbackfunc(prompt, thefunc):
    rl_lib.rl_callback_handler_install(prompt, rlcallbackfunctype(thefunc))

readline.callback_handler_install = setcallbackfunc
# ENDHACK

PROMPT = 'fics> '

def erase_prompt():
    print(chr(8)*len(PROMPT))

def print_prompt():
    readline.callback_handler_remove()
    setcallbackfunc(PROMPT, process_input)

def process_input(input):
    input = input.strip()
    if not len(input):
        return

    erase_prompt()
    print ('ok, you said: ', input)
    print_prompt()

print_prompt()

while True:
    r, w, x = select([sys.stdin], [], [])

    if sys.stdin in r:
        readline.callback_read_char()