Re: bracketed-paste-mode should default to "off"

[Per Bothner]

On 2/1/22 15:59, Karl O. Pinc wrote:
> With bracketed paste on, when pasting anything containing a newline,
> it is as if there's a "Press enter to continue" invisible dialog that
> pops up.  There is no way to tell that your terminal is waiting
> for you to do something.

Actually, in the bash-with-readline I'm currently using bracketed paste will 
highlight
the pasted text with inverse video.  I have mixed feelings about this.

An alternative idea: A user-settable highlight style for the *entire*
active input area - pasted text as well  a directy-typed characters.
Even better: Two user-selectable styles, one for the current active input area,
and one for previous input areas.  (Once you type Enter, the highlight style
of the input area is changed from the current-input to previous-input style.)

I've implemented support for something like this in my DomTerm
terminal emulator, and I think it is pretty nice.

> I agree it would be nice to make things safer by default
> but I don't really see that happening here.  I'd like to
> see such a substantive change justified.  What is the
> threat model?  Maybe I've not got the proper perspective
> because I think about/use the features of readline primarily
> at the terminal prompt.  Is a beginner, who's the target of
> malware or phishing, really going to edit something they've
> pasted after pasting it before execution?  Is the extra
> step really going to allow to removal of the malice?  I don't
> see such a user, who's already decided to cut-and-paste
> from some email (or more typically, some random website),
> pausing after pasting and then deciding
> to research and correct whatever flaw in the pasted text
> the attacker has placed there.

It's not just an issue of malice.  Suppose you copy and paste
some commands from a tutorial, and you accidentally copy an extra line.
Or you intend to copy a line and then edit it before execution,
but you accidentally include the final newline.  Having to type
an extra Enter is a small price to reduce the risk of such accidents.
--
        --Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/