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From: weimer@ssd.kodak.com (Gary Weimer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Redirection question
Message-ID: <1990Nov15.153727.3223@ssd.kodak.com>
Date: 15 Nov 90 15:37:27 GMT
References: <roarment.658423394@faui09> <14447@smoke.brl.mil> <1990Nov14.150228.4038@druid.uucp>
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In article <1990Nov14.150228.4038@druid.uucp> darcy@druid.uucp (D'Arcy J.M. Cain) writes:
>
>How about this for a kludge?  Have an input routine that takes a prompt
>and a buffer argument and checks to see if there are characters waiting.
>If not then issue the prompt.  as long as there are characters then you
>just read.  If there is a human waiting for a prompt then you issue one.
>If necessary you can add timing stuff so that slow terminals with stuff
>in the pipe don't trigger the prompt.  Maybe I'll write this and post it
>if I get a little time.

This won't work if the program you are piping from runs slower than the
program you are piping to (i.e. a spell checker piped through cat). The
second program will always be waiting for the first.