nodejs / nodejs/node

Add a way to set the escape timeout directly to stdin

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#63,990 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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feature request
Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
122k
Forks
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Avg merge
4d 2h
Merged PRs (30d)
283

Description

What is the problem this feature will solve?

Prevent extremely jarring terminal menu behaviour in contexts where "esc" is expected to immediately trigger exit behaviour, whether that's popping up a prompt or invoking process.exit (i.e. almost every terminal menu presented to users).

Especially in combination with input overloading so that "esc", "q", and "ctrl-x" all do the same thing, the fact that everything except escape is instant leads to an incredibly bad user experience.

What is the feature you are proposing to solve the problem?

Add a function to stdin that lets users explicitly set the escape timeout for that input. E.g. stdin.setEscapeTimeout(0)

What alternatives have you considered?

Two alternatives, neither good:

  1. use a custom ReadLine interface with the escapeCodeTimeout value set to zero. This is a hack for any code where "lines" don't mean anything, e.g. terminal menu navigation that relies on direct keyboard input rather than "text input where the user sees what they're typing and signals they are finished via newline".
  2. use a separate stdin.on(`data`, (d) => d.length === 1 && d[0] === 0x1b && process.exit()) event handler on top of keypress monitoring, just so we don't get stuck in whatever code path enforces the 500ms delay before sending "esc" on as keypress event. This works "great", but is obviously also a hack: one should not need "not a keypress listener" just to smooth over a problem with "keypress" =)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing stdin keypress handling and how the ReadLine interface uses its escapeCodeTimeout option. Compare that behavior with the separate stdin data event path described in the issue. Done means stdin exposes a documented way to set the escape timeout, including zero, so escape can trigger immediately without a custom ReadLine interface or separate data handler.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript, nodejs
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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