Consequences

Command line editing allows reusing editing commands using the keyboard arrows.

Solutions

Linux

Make sure the development version of libreadline is installed. See here

MacOS

As Linux, but be aware that the build script sets the environment to prefer to GNU version of libreadline over the system one. The system one has the same name and basic interface, but lacks features that are required to link SWI-Prolog.

Note that the graphical app for MacOS has its own line editing.

Windows

The graphical app (swipl-win.exe) has its own line editing. The console version (swipl.exe) uses the command line editing facilities of the Windows console.