[joh6nn]

Using the arrow keys to navigate the current input is well supported on most modern terminals, and has been for most of my adult life. If this isn't working properly in your terminal, then I'd recommend experimenting with the various settings available to you.

Some terminals also support mouse navigation, so keep an eye out for that as well.

I'm sorry that you've been dealing with this frustration for so long and under the impression that it was just supposed to be that way and not fixable. The good news is that it's NOT supposed to be that frustrating and you CAN fix it

Edit: you edited your comment somewhere between my first seeing it and my reply posting. I haven't had to modify the default settings on my terminal to fix things like this in about 20 years. I've changed them to tweak various preferences like scrollback, cursor shape/size, etc. But arrow navigation has worked out of the box for me for so long that I literally can't remember when I last had to fix it. I don't know why our experiences have been so different, but I'm sorry that a tool that has been so useful for me has been so frustrating for you.

[crabbone]

I see this in situations when terminal relies on readline() to do this stuff, but that isn't installed.