Java 8 Nashorn: Console pretty unusable

Question

I am using Java 8 build 1.8.0-b132 on OSX 10.9.2.

I am playing with Nashorn the new JavaScript runtime in Java 8.

I am using Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/jjs but unfortunately jjs is pretty unusable in interactive mode since cursor left/right does not work:

jjs
jjs> var x =^[[D

The above output (^[[D) is the result of pressing 'cursor left'. Is there a way to fix that behavior and using cursor left/right in the jjs console?

Answer 1

Thanks to @assylias for pointing me to rlwrap.

I installed rlwrap via homebrew:

brew install rlwrap

Then I defined an alias in my .zshrc (would be the same for bash in .bashrc)

alias jjs='rlwrap /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/jjs'

Now I can use jjs on the commandline and the <- and -> keys are working as expected.