[no subject]

[REM at MIT-MC (Robert Elton Maas)]

Not a bug, rather a question.
Is there any way LISP can send a signal to the CRTSTY it's running under
that says in effect "don't update the screen until I tell you", then later
send a signal that says in effect "ok, now I'm done making all the changes I
want for now, please send the terminal all updates necessary at this
point in time before listening to me any more"?  I have a program
that types out a checkerboard on the terminal.  To run in display mode
I simply do (CURSORPOS 0 0) just before printing the board, but timing
races in CRTSTY cause it to frequently erase part of a line that didn't
change and retype it.  If I could set up batches of output and if CRTSTY
could stabilize on a batch before starting updates, the number of
characters sent over the 300-baud TIP port would be much fewer, only what
is actually necessary to make actual changes, and the effect on the eye
would be much better, I'd see motion of checkers without spurious erase-retype
motions elsewhere on the board.