Re: Profiling font-lock in xemacs

[Stefan Monnier]

> Emacs does not do very much in signal handlers now.  For sigchld it
> just records the status, something that is best done right away.
> XTread_socket is complex; if some of that can be done later on, that
> might be good.  But it can't wait too long.  For instance, quit has to
> be detected reasonably soon.  Perhaps the QUIT macro could run the
> code to process the input.
> 
> On the other hand, this code works; we have had little problem with
> it for a long time.

The problem is indeed XTread_socket.  It is complex and it has
introduced really nasty bugs which were very difficult to trace.
Also, it is dangerous to try to extend its functionality because
it is run asynchronously (the recent "selected-window follows mouse"
patch is a case in point).

I think it would be worth it to try and move the bulk of it out of the
signal handler as the XEmacs folks did.  I haven't checked when the do
the "check for input".  Doing it from QUIT is indeed one obvious
possibility.


        Stefan