Shift + Return to insert linebreak in python

Question

I'm trying to get the behaviour of typical IM clients that use Return to send a text and Shift + Return to insert a linebreak. Is there a way to achieve that with minimal effort in Python, using e.g. readline and raw_input?

Answer 1

Ok, I heard it can be accomplished also with the readline, in a way.

You can import readline and set in configuration your desired key (Shift+Enter) to a macro that put some special char to the end of the line and newline. Then you can call raw_input in a loop.

Like this:

import readline    
# I am using Ctrl+K to insert line break 
# (dont know what symbol is for shift+enter)
readline.parse_and_bind('C-k: "#\n"')
text = []
line = "#"
while line and line[-1]=='#':
  line = raw_input("> ")
  if line.endswith("#"):
    text.append(line[:-1])
  else:
    text.append(line)

# all lines are in "text" list variable
print "\n".join(text)

Answer 2

I doubt you'd be able to do that just using the readline module as it will not capture the individual keys pressed and rather just processes the character responses from your input driver.

You could do it with PyHook though and if the Shift key is pressed along with the Enter key to inject a new-line into your readline stream.