ksh discriminates background processes

[Guy Harris]

>every shell i have used in the last 13 years has lowered the priority of
>background processes - makes sense to me

But not to everybody.  The problem with a shell doing so is that it's
making an assumption that's not necessarily true, namely that a
"background" process - i.e., a process initially started with an "&" -
isn't an interactive process.  This isn't necessarily true on:

	1) systems with job control - the job may be moved into the
	   foreground later;

	2) systems with a window system - the job may be a terminal
	   emulator, in which case you can run all sorts of interactive
	   processes within the session it starts up.

The original poster was being bit by 2); as he said,

	In particular, I like my xterm processes to
	be run at a high priority, not a low one.

and frankly, I think most "xterm" users would agree with him.