Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!husc6!think!barmar
From: barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Character echo at read time
Keywords: echo tty device driver line discipline
Message-ID: <27563@think.UUCP>
Date: 9 Sep 88 16:31:00 GMT
References: <347@spies.UUCP> <670025@hpclscu.HP.COM> <24355@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <371@polyof.UUCP> <1432@ficc.uu.net>
Sender: news@think.UUCP
Reply-To: barmar@kulla.think.com.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 21

In article <371@polyof.UUCP>, john@polyof.UUCP ( John Buck ) writes:
> The other thing we did (for people who can't stand mixed input/output), is
> to add an option to the tty line disc to not perform any output (ttwrite)
> type calls to the terminal, if a line is in the middle of being typed.
> (pos > 0).  As soon as you hit a RETURN, the output that may have backed-up
> is flushed.

Multics has had an option like this since about 1973; it is called
"polite" mode.  However, it would not block the output forever -- if
you start typing a line and then stop typing for something like 30
seconds, it will flush the pending output.

It also has a "replay" mode to go with this.  If you have polite mode
off, or if the timeout I described above occurs, this mode causes the
interrupted line to be re-echoed.

Barry Margolin
Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
{uunet,harvard}!think!barmar