Pretty printing in windows command line

Question

I am trying to add colors to my input statement in the windows command line using the library Clint.

from clint.textui import colored, puts,prompt

puts(colored.yellow("Hello!!!\n\n"))
user_number = prompt.query(str(colored.cyan('\nPlease enter something:\n')))

I can't figure out why the cyan color not showing up. Attached is the view from the command line. Thanks!

enter image description here

What version of windows are you on? This is only supported in some windows 10 versions — Oliver Ni, Jul 10 '20 at 18:48
@ayadav I have added a solution to your problem, pls take a look — Saadi Toumi Fouad, Jul 10 '20 at 20:29

H. pap · Answer 1 · 2020-07-10T19:59:50.083

0

The reason this doesn't work is because prompt.py translates your input into a raw string thus not recognising the color that you chose. I think this a bad implementation from their part. You can prove my theory by running
user_number = prompt.query(str(colored.cyan('\nPlease enter something:\n')),batch=True)
This is an infinite loop but it prints your color just because it is not translated into raw in this case.

edited Jul 10 '20 at 19:59

answered Jul 10 '20 at 19:54

H. pap

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I guess your right. Is there any other library which will be suitable for my case? – ayadav Jul 10 '20 at 20:17
1

That's what I would do: ```puts(colored.yellow("Please enter a string:\n")) value = input()``` @ayadav – H. pap Jul 10 '20 at 20:47
Oh yeah simple and sweet. Thanks! – ayadav Jul 10 '20 at 21:27
@ayadav I would appreciate an upvote on my answer. You are welcome :) – H. pap Jul 10 '20 at 21:49

Saadi Toumi Fouad · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-10T20:31:44.113

Here is the definition of the query function in the file prompt.py from the clint lib

def query(prompt, default='', validators=None, batch=False):
    # Set the nonempty validator as default
    if validators is None:
        validators = [RegexValidator(r'.+')]

    # Let's build the prompt
    if prompt[-1] is not ' ':
        prompt += ' '

    if default:
        prompt += '[' + default + '] '

    # If input is not valid keep asking
    while True:
        # If batch option is True then auto reply
        # with default input
        if not batch:
            user_input = raw_input(prompt).strip() or default
        else:
            print(prompt)
            user_input = ''

        # Validate the user input
        try:
            for validator in validators:
                user_input = validator(user_input)
            return user_input
        except Exception as e:
            puts(yellow(e.message))

you can see that you can't print a colorful text like you are trying to achieve, since it expects a literal string as an argument, we can alter the query function to work as expected like this

from clint.textui import colored, puts, prompt, validators as validators_module
from re import match

prompt_colors = {
  "red": colored.red, "green": colored.green, "yellow": colored.yellow, "blue": colored.blue,
  "black": colored.black, "magenta": colored.magenta, "cyan": colored.cyan, "white": colored.white
}

def new_query(prompt, color, default='', validators=None, batch=False):
    # Set the nonempty validator as default
    if validators is None:
        validators = [validators_module.RegexValidator(r'.+')]

    # Let's build the prompt
    if prompt[-1] is not ' ':
        prompt += ' '

    if default:
        prompt += '[' + default + '] '

    # If input is not valid keep asking
    while True:
        # If batch option is True then auto reply
        # with default input
        if not batch:
            # now the output is colored as expected 
            puts(prompt_colors[color](prompt))
            user_input = input().strip() or default
        else:
            print(prompt)
            user_input = ''

        # Validate the user input
        try:
            for validator in validators:
                user_input = validator(user_input)
            return user_input
        except Exception as e:
            puts(yellow(e.message))

# now the query function is customized as per our needs
prompt.query = new_query

puts(colored.yellow("Hello!!!\n\n"))
user_input = prompt.query("Please enter something: ", "cyan")

Note: I think the changes are clear enough and do not need explanation, but if you have some questions I would be glad to answer'em in the comments section

That makes sense. Thanks for the answer – ayadav Jul 10 '20 at 21:26 — ayadav, Jul 10 '20 at 21:26

Pretty printing in windows command line

2 Answers2