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From: koren@hpfelg.HP.COM (Steve Koren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: SKsh 1.5 release available
Message-ID: <13920077@hpfelg.HP.COM>
Date: 22 Jul 90 00:36:19 GMT
References: <13920076@hpfelg.HP.COM>
Organization: HP Elec. Design Div. -FtCollins
Lines: 47


As I mentioned in the originial note entitled "SKsh 1.5 release available",
I am posting this note with a few questions.

First, should I continue to post the addendums for new releases in
comp.sys.amiga.tech?  On one hand, they only are posted once every
4 to 6 months, but on the other, they are fairly large.  The most
recent is nearly 32 K bytes.  I can easily leave them out of the
posting and only say, "the new version is available; read the addendum
when you get it."

Second, I would like to solicit feedback on the following:
 
  1) I am considering extending the "complist" feature to allow
     the expansion list to be keyed off the value of the first
     command line parameter.  Does anyone actually use the
     complist feature?  Would anyone use that extension?

  2) I would like to hear any ideas for possible extensions to
     the ARexx port.  There is alot of room for improvement here,
     I think; only the basics are implemented now.  I am not,
     myself, a heavy user of ARexx, so I'm sure there are things
     obvious to others that I would not think of on my own.

Third, has anyone encountered strange side effects with the
WaitForChar() function?  I use this in SKsh if the ARexx
port is active as "WaitForChar(Input(), MY_DELAY)".  However,
I have noticed that when this function is used, and the console
is in the raw mode, certain things break.  For example, the
popular "MachClock" utility screen-shuffler feature stops
working, and in "excellence!" the cursor stops blinking,
although everything else acts normally.  What gives?  As I
understood it, the function is supposed to simply put my
task to sleep until either a character appears for me to
read, or the timer runs out, whichever comes first.  I am
fairly sure that this function is in fact causing the problem,
since if I replace it with a Read(), all works fine.  Is there
possibly a side effect of using it with Input()?

Lastly, besides "real" pipes, are there still significant features
that people want which aren't in SKsh?  I am definately planning a
1.6 release, but the number of future releases will depend
heavily upon what people actually want from it.  I currently have
a list of requested enhancements and bug fixes that are not
yet implemented, but for the most part they are minor things.

   - steve