enable-local-variables 'maybe

[Roland Winkler]

In GNU Emacs 21.1.1 (i386-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2002-02-01 on tfkp12
configured using `configure  --prefix=/nfs/common --libexecdir=/nfs/common/lib 
--bindir=/nfs/common/lib/emacs/21.1/bin/i686-Linux 
--mandir=/nfs/common/share/man --infodir=/nfs/common/share/info --with-gcc 
--with-pop --with-x --with-x-toolkit=athena i386-pc-linux'
Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: POSIX
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_US
  locale-coding-system: iso-latin-1
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: nil

In my .emacs I have

(setq enable-local-variables 'maybe)

So when a file contains local variables, emacs asks:

  "Set local variables as specified at end of ..."

The problem is that this querying happens somehow `in between' while
emacs might be doing other things that depend on the mode of the
buffer. These "other things" can override the prompt.

To be more specific: Most often I use file local variables in the
context of auctex. Then, instead of the above prompt I get

Updating modify environment menu...
Updating...done

which I will confirm or reject by typing `y' or `n'.
That's odd.

Is this an emacs or an auctex problem? I'd expect that emacs should
wait with other things while waiting for the user input if it can
happen that these other things can hide the prompt.
What happens if these other things also require user input?

Roland