Very similar to what I've done,
but note that (at least in my terminal) you can't sub the tab for spaces, since it have a changing length based on previous characters.
Here's my version (I only needed columns this time):
my prntOffset = 0;
sub prink #(string to print)
{
  my $prntText = shift;
  print $prntText; 
  if($prntText =~ s/.*[\n\r](.*)$/$1/s){$prntOffset = 0;}
  while(length $prntText)
  {
    if($prntText =~
      s/^((\w|[\Q\\\/\{\};'"\[\]\.,\?\~\!@#$%^&* ()\E])+)//
    )
    {$prntOffset += length $1;} #normal chars
    elsif(substr($prntText,0,1) eq "\b")
    {
      $prntText = substr($prntText,1);
      $prntOffset-- if $prntOffset;
    }
    elsif($prntText =~ s/^(\a+)//){} #yes nothing
    elsif($prntText =~ s/^(\t+)//)
    {$prntOffset += 8 * (length $1) - ($prntOffset % 8);}
    else
    {
      die "\ano pattern match for
      \"".substr($prntText,0,1)."\" in \"prink\" function\n";
    }
  }
  $prntOffset %= 80;
}

[download]
Seems to hold for the few but focused tests I ran.

In reply to Re^2: scalar or sub that can tell me the terminal print offset ? by palkia
in thread scalar or sub that can tell me the terminal print offset ? by palkia

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