Here is a start on a Tk solution. Entries also have a "validatecommand", with which you can pretest the user's text to be valid. You will have to search groups.google.com for "Perl Tk Entry validate" for examples... it can get complex. A Tk::Text widget could also be used, but an Entry widget is simpler for this problem (i.e. no multiline text ) 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Tk;

my $mw  = MainWindow->new();

$mw->fontCreate('medium',
   -family=>'arial',
   -weight=>'bold',
   -size=>int(-14*14/10));


my $frame = $mw->Frame()->pack();
my $bframe = $mw->Frame()->pack();

my $estring = 'C://foo/bar/';
my $lstring = 'Please enter file'; 

my $label = $frame->Label(
          -textvariable => \$lstring,
      -bg => 'white',
      -width => 25,
      -justify =>'right',
      -anchor => 'e',
      -font => 'medium',
      )->pack(-side=>'left',-padx=>5);

my $entry = $frame->Entry(
          -textvariable => \$estring,
      -bg => 'white',
      -width => 25,
      -font => 'medium',
      )->pack(-side=>'left',-padx=>5);

$entry->focus;
$entry->icursor('end');

$entry->bind('<Return>', \&get_file);

$bframe->Button( -text    => 'Quit',
                -command => sub { exit }
               )->pack(-side=>'left',-padx=>5);

$bframe->Button( -text    => 'Change',
                -command => sub {  
                  $lstring = 'Enter another';                
                  $estring = 'D://foo/fi/fum/';
                  $entry->focus;
                  $entry->icursor('end');
                }
               )->pack(-side=>'left',-padx=>5);
MainLoop;

sub get_file{
    my ($widget) = @_;
    my $entered = $widget->get();
    print "file =  $entered\n";
}

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In reply to Re: <STDIN> "anticipate" input? by zentara
in thread <STDIN> "anticipate" input? by johnnyjohnny

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