R devel - Apr 2003 - Re: [R] Keyboard problem using RWin 1.7.0 (PR#2798)

This is a report of a keyboard problem using RWin 1.7.0.  The following is 
the R version and my system information.

R version
Precompiled binary from CRAN
platform i386-pc-mingw32
arch     i386           
os       mingw32        
system   i386, mingw32  
status                  
major    1              
minor    7.0            
year     2003           
month    04             
day      16             
language R   

System Information: Gateway Computer
Processor: Pentium IV 1.4MHz 
RAM: 256M 
OS: Windows 2000 Professional (Build 2195) Service Pack 3


Bug Description 


At startup I get the standard information and prompt.

R : Copyright 2003, The R Development Core Team
Version 1.7.0  (2003-04-16)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type `license()' or `licence()' for distribution details.

R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type `contributors()' for more information.

Type `demo()' for some demos, `help()' for on-line help, or
`help.start()' for a HTML browser interface to help.
Type `q()' to quit R.
>
If I then paste anything, even something as simple as the character
"1"
(without quotes) to the command line, R stops responding to the keyboard.  
The "1" is visible on the command line, but pressing <return>,
or the arrow
keys, or <esc>, or any other key has no effect.  If the text being pasted
is
several lines of code, it is executed correctly, and if it outputs to the 
console, the output is seen correctly, but afterwards, the keyboard does not 
respond.  Additional code can be pasted to the command line and it also is 
executed correctly.

The computer is not completely locking up, nor is RWin. I can still use the 
mouse to select R menu items, for example, reading documentation, sourcing 
files, even pasting more text.  I can also use <alt>-<tab> to switch
between
other programs running under Windows, where the keyboard works just fine.  

Experimenting with these possibilities actually led to a simple work around 
for me.  After pasting text to the command line (which stops keyboard 
responding), doing any of the following restores keyboard response:

1. Switching to any other running program (like an editor) and then switching 
back to R;
2. pressing <ctrl>-<esc> to bring up the Windows Start menu and then
going
back to R;
3. using the R menus to source a file or read documentation.  (If I use the R 
menu to source some code, the  output of the sourced code appears in the 
console window "above" the pasted text, pushing the previously pasted
line of
text down on the screen.)
4. simply minimizing the console window and then restoring it.

<Speculation warning> 
It would appear that anything that takes the focus away from the console 
window "clears" whatever problem is caused by pasting text to the
command
line.
<speculation off>

Dan Nordlund

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