Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com; run by ezmlm
List-Subscribe: <mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>
List-Archive: <http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post: <mailto:cygwin AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>
List-Help: <mailto:cygwin-help AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>, <http://sources.redhat.com/ml/#faqs>
Sender: cygwin-owner AT sources DOT redhat DOT com
Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT sources DOT redhat DOT com
Message-ID: <3AE38A28.88272A87@pobox.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 18:49:28 -0700
From: Brion Vibber <brion AT pobox DOT com>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (Win98; U)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Backwards typing under load
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I've noticed that when my system (Windows 98 SE, Cygwin 1.1.8) comes
under sudden, heavy load (especially heavy disk i/o), some keyboard
input in my cygiwn shell comes out backwards!

A good way to precipitate this seems to be to load up a bunch of MP3
files in Winamp with the playlist open (it takes inordinately long to
search every file for length & id tags), then while it's working type
away in the cygwin window running bash, or joe, or whatever. (Other
activities, such as loading StarOffice, will do the trick nicely as
well.)

What I type:
  abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz\n

What I get on screen (both echoed, and in the 'xxx not found' message):
  abkjihgfedconmlpqrstuvwxyz\n
    [-------][--] < the reversed sections
or
  abcjihgfedknmlvutsrqpowyxz\n
     [-----] [-][------] []
or
  ihgfedcbajrqponmlks\nzyxwvut
  [-------] [------] [ ------]
etc.

This is rather distracting when I suddenly find that "cd bin" becomes
"nib dc" or "/ fr- mr" becomes "rm -rf /" if I type at the wrong time.
:) Actually, since the \n can also be swapped around, "rm -rf /junk\n"
could end up as "rm -rf /\nknuj", so always wait before you hit enter...
:O

I don't see this behavior in a COMMAND.COM dos box, nor in Windows GUI
apps - keypresses stay in proper order except in cygwin. It also seems
to be independent of keyboard layout, happening both with my normal
US-International layout (in which dead keys don't work, this seems to be
an old problem judging by the list archives) and a vanilla US-101
layout.

I don't see anything obvious in the list archives or docs, so... any
idea what's going on here?

-- brion vibber (brion AT pobox DOT com / vibber AT usc DOT edu)

--
Want to unsubscribe from this list?
Check out: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple