terminal width

[Ray Andrews <rayandrews@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

    If I have a ragged array that I want to cut
      down to terminal width this is fine for each line:
      
      output[line_number]=$input[1, $COLUMNS]
      
      ... if there are no color codes or tabs.  If there are, the
      predictable thing happens.  Using 'cut' has exactly the same
      problem.  I doubt the shell can be asked to deal with that, but
      I'll ask anyway.  Could be that ncurses, or something, will handle
      it.  Or maybe somebody knows of a utility that can.  I understand
      that it's a can of worms tho.