#: 13133 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo)
    20-Nov-91  23:20:58
Sb: #13123-Memscript
Fm: Ian Hodgson 72177,1762
To: Kevin Darling 76703,4227 (X)

Kevin,
       First, I looked at my original message and discovered that it didn't
make as much sense as I had planned because about 3 lines of it vanished when I
uploaded it. Odd, that. Anyway, here is some more about my little problem.
     I tried typing in the script by hand on command lines. Works fine that
way. Then, I tried executing it as a shell script, from disk, rather than a
memscript. No dice, the DISPLAY command was ignored that way. So, on a hunch, I
added a SLEEP just before the DISPLAY line. Now it works.

     The new script is:

     merge /dd/sys/stdfonts
     merge /dd/sys/italic
     merge /dd/sys/stdptrs
     shell i=/w7&
     sleep 200
     display 1b 31 1 2 >/w7
     echo New window is /w7

     Here is what I think. When the new shell is being assigned there is a disk
access to find the current data directory for the new shell (I display the
current data directory on the prompt line). If the parent window points at a
floppy, the display command is missed. If it points at a ramdisk, the display
command works. I suspect that, while the new shell is sorting out its directory
for the prompt, it ignores input from another window completely. With the
ramdisk it finds the directory fast enough to catch the display command, but
with floppies it does not. Seems to make some sense, no? If this can be
confirmed, a brief note to that effect might do well as part of the Shell+
docs. Waddya think?

     Now all I have to figure out why typing "ex" from the new w7 created by
the script doesn't terminate the window. Just discovered that if I open a shell
to create a text window, the window terminates with an ex. If I open a graphics
window, it doesn't. How come?