strange timing problem in /usr/ucb/Mail

[John Owens]

In article <13 at catwoman.ACA.MCC.COM>, ables at catwoman.ACA.MCC.COM (King Ables) writes:
> We noticed a strange timing problem in /usr/ucb/Mail today
> ...
> 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
> to be a timing problem where the 2nd line's worth of text (the
> part that was wrapped) isn't gathered up and processed so you
> wind up with a partial CC: line going out.

Yep.  This is a consequence of the way Mail is allowing you to edit
that input line.  This will also happen if you use ~h to edit the
headers.  What it does is to print a prompt, "Cc: ", then it does a
sequence of TIOCSTI ioctl's to Simulate Type-In of the characters in
the current Cc: line.  This subjects the current characters to the tty
driver editing features, allowing you to kill the line, backspace, ^W,
etc.  However, if you input a character while it's simulating type-in
of the other characters, your character will be interspersed.

I don't know of any way around this, without rewriting mail to not use
TIOCSTI and cooked mode at all (and use it's own cbreak-mode line
editor).  Just wait for the Cc: lines (and the ~h output).

-- 
John Owens		john at jetson.UPMA.MD.US
SMART HOUSE L.P.	uunet!jetson!john		(old uucp)
+1 301 249 6000		john%jetson.uucp at uunet.uu.net	(old internet)