Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!apple!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpfcso!hpfelg!koren
From: koren@hpfelg.HP.COM (Steve Koren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: SKsh 1.5 release available
Message-ID: <13920083@hpfelg.HP.COM>
Date: 31 Jul 90 13:06:22 GMT
References: <13920076@hpfelg.HP.COM>
Organization: HP Elec. Design Div. -FtCollins
Lines: 33


A few days ago I wrote this:

> 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,

Thanks to Janne Saarela, I now know what the problem is.  I'll
point it out here so perhaps it will avoid biting someone else.

It turns out that Rob Peck's "Programmer's Guide to the Amiga"
(an excellent book, by the way), says that the delay value is given
in "ticks", or 50ths of a second.  It is really in microseconds.
I specified the value in ticks in SKsh 1.5 after looking at
PGttA, which of course means that the shell is consuming a rather
excessive amount of CPU time.

Accckk!  I will certainly fix this for 1.6, which I'm considering
moving up in time (with a corresponding decrease in new features)
because of both this (serious) and the +C bug I pointed out
eariler in the week.  The other one is easy to work around, but
all you can do here is to run the SKsh with the ARexx port with
a low priority.

Also I should point out that this only affects the shell started
with the "-a" (ARexx) option.

Sorry 'bout this, folks!  And again, thanks go to Janne Saarela
for pointing out the problem; I would probably not have found it
for a long time otherwise, as the PGttA is the only reference I
use routinely for such things.

   - steve "gotta find some RKM's" koren