From: "Michael W. Ryder" <_mwryder@...>
Date: 2008-08-20T08:16:36+09:00
Subject: Re: overprinting characters

Matt Harrison wrote:
> I have a script that does things to large files > 1Gb and I want to be
> able to show the percentage through the current file.
> 
> I know exactly how I will get the percentage, but I want to know how to
> display it in the terminal.
> 
> What I would like is the name of the current file, then on the next
> line, "currentbytes/totalbytes [xx%]" and I want it to update the
> characters in place without writing hundreds of lines to the terminal.
> 
> I think I want to be able to position the cursor back to the beginning
> of the current line but I have no idea how to do this in ruby.
> 
> Grateful for any ideas
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Matt
> 
You can use curses with Ruby to do what you want.  Otherwise if you can 
figure out how to get Ruby to properly handle the CR character that may 
be a simpler way.  I am not sure how to get Ruby to print a character 
without interpreting it -- i.e. print 0xa prints 10 instead of a 
carriage return.