Question

This code:

void Controller::write(const std::string& str) {
    std::cout << "Writing: [" << str << "] to board." << std::endl; 
    s.write(str);

takes a string and pushes it over a serial link to a microcontroller. (This works fine). However, when I try to push a like this: write("ats203?\r"), the console output looks like this:

] to board.ts203?

So the Writing: [a gets overwritten by the ] to board. after std::cout encounters the \r in the string.

How can I print the string as a bunch of characters rather than mangling console output when an escape character is encountered?

EDIT: To clarify.

I want my string to be ats203?\r. This is because the microcontroller is controlled using a slightly modified version of an AT command, and doesn’t accept the command until it reads a \r. When the string is pushed to the microcontroller, it reads the \r as a carriage return, and acts on things it read prior to the \r.

What I want is to display the string that I’ve constructed. There is a bunch of other commands elsewhere that get created depending on flags that are set at runtime. So I end up with strings that look something like ate1\ratv0\rat+OSA=7\rat+OSX=255\r.

I would like to see what I’ve constructed and what I’m pushing. I can’t do this, because std::cout reads the carriage return, acts on it, and mangles my console output.

EDIT: Clarification, again:
I want std::cout << "Writing: [" << str << "] to board." << std::endl; to produce (when str is ats203?\r):

Writing: [ats203?\r] to board. 

Answer 1

void Controller::write(const std::string& command_string) {

    std::string display_string = std::regex_replace(command_string,std::regex("(\r)"),"\\r");

    std::cout << "Writing: [" << display_string << "] to board.\n"; 
    s.write(command_string);

So then write("ats203?\r") will literally print out

ats203?\r