[85] in 6.033 discussion
reminiscent of Therac-25 ?
mhbraun@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (mhbraun@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Wed Feb 21 23:32:56 1996
From RISKS DIGEST 17.78:
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 02:31:43 GMT
From: ian@tanagra.demon.co.uk (Ian Chard)
Subject: Unix screen-based programs and cursor keys
I've just had a rather alarming experience while using Linux's "cfdisk"
program (for those that don't know, cfdisk is a disk partitioning tool, and
it is screen-oriented, requiring the use of the cursor keys). When I tried
to move around the screen, the program didn't understand the control
sequence generated by the cursor keys on my terminal, and as one of the
characters in the sequence was the letter D, one of my partitions suddenly
disappeared.
No damage was actually caused by this (I killed the process rather than
trying to exit, as heaven knows what further attempted cursor movement would
have done), but the risks are obvious. It seems to be common that terminals
attached to Unix systems have non-functional cursor keys, and critical
applications like disk partitioners should take note.
Ian Chard ian@tanagra.demon.co.uk +44 161 434 6492
