when to echo typein

[Chris Torek]

Obviously, the answer is `whenever the user wants it'.  All of Unix,
VMS, and MS-DOS are deficient in that respect: they only echo when
*they* want to.  (If you want it when they want it, that is fine for
you, of course.)

In article <15410 at ism780c.isc.com> mikep at ism780c.isc.com
(Michael A. Petonic) writes:
>On BSD systems, there is a key (default ^O) that flushes the input
>queue.  It is specified by: ``stty flush <char>''.

^O flushes *output*, not input.  You can flush all typein (including
text that spans newlines) by typing ^Z, and then (if necessary) `fg'.
This is really just a side effect, but I make use of it occasionally.
As far as I know, SysV does not have a way to flush typein that spans
newlines (or ^D, or any other form of commit) that does not also send
a SIGINT to the current process.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris