$_ = "alpha\tbravo\tcharlie\n";
print;
s/\t/\\t/g;
print;
### You'd have user edit it
s/\\t/\t/g;
print;
### Write back to file
[download]

Hi TJPride,

It works. Using Term::ReadLine, the first regular expression is unnecessary. This package appears to escape '\' characters as they are input without disturbing the rest of the string. I know this because the first version (which pre-escaped the TABs) also worked.

I now have:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use File::Basename;
use Term::ReadLine;

my $inFile = $ARGV[0];
die "no inFile" unless $ARGV[0];
open (my $in, "<", $inFile) or die "Can't open $inFile for reading.";

my $term = new Term::ReadLine(basename($0));
while(my $before = <$in>) {
    chomp($before);
    my $after = $before;
    # Not needed, unless you want to see the escapes.
    # $after =~ s/\t/\\t/g;
    for (;;) {
        print "BEFORE: $before\n";
        $after = $term->readline("AFTER: ", $after);
        my $ans = $term->readline("Accept? (y/n) -> ", "y");
        if ( $ans =~ /^[Yy]/ ) {
            $after =~ s/\\t/\t/g;
            print "AFTER: $after\n\n";
            last;
        }
    }
}
[download]

Thanks!

Larry