strange timing problem in /usr/ucb/Mail

[Dan Heller]

> ables at catwoman.ACA.MCC.COM (King Ables) writes:
>We noticed a strange timing problem in /usr/ucb/Mail today...
>The problem occurs when replying to a message which many
>recipients and you ^D at the end of the message and the CC:
>line is shown to you (you have askcc set in your .mailrc).
>If the Cc: line has several addresses on it so that it wraps
>to a 2nd line AND if you hit ^D and <RETURN> (the <return> in
>response to the Cc: line prompt) VERY QUICKLY, there seems

The problem is the ucbMail uses TIOCSTI to retype your Cc: line
as if you typed it.  This is how Mail gives you your headers
and positions the cursor in the right place without having to
put you in cbreak/noecho mode to keep track of how many chars
to allow you to backspace.

The timing problem is a correct assumption ... apparently, the BSD
driver allows certain characters to sneak in before normal chars.
So, when you hit CR or ^D, that gets interpreted immediately and
the rest of the string is either lost or sent to whatever wants
to read your input next.  Those of you who use command line completion
in csh on sunOS or similar shells might notice the same problem
(that you *must* wait for the completion or the whole line is fubar).

There is no fix for this -- just wait till the whole line prints
before you hit your CR or ^D or use a better mail interface than Mail.

Dan Heller	<island!argv at sun.com>