readline + python + vi-editing-mode

[Laurence Gonsalves]

On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 3:08 PM, Ned Deily <nad at acm.org> wrote:
> In article <[hidden email]>,
>  laurence <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> I'm trying to enable vi editing mode in readline in Python.
...
> Did you install the py27-readline port?  If not, modern Pythons on OS X
> will link with the Apple-supplied BSD libedit which has a different
> syntax for its bind commands.  py27-readline replaces the Python
> readline with one linked with the GNU libreadline.

Thanks! Installing py27-readline (and py33-readline for Python 3)
solves my problem.

I knew that Apple has a libreadline almost-clone, but I didn't
understand why I was getting it. I'd assumed that if I was getting the
readline module from MacPorts it'd actually be using libreadline, but
I guess the situation is more complex.