# $EPIC: key_interval,v 1.2 2005/03/12 01:37:27 jnelson Exp $
Synopsis:
   set key_interval [<number>]

Description:
   This sets the timeout in milliseconds for the key input disambiguator.

About ambiguous keybindings:
   You are permitted to create ambiguous keybindings, for example:
         /BIND ^[ PARSE_COMMAND {echo You pressed Escape!}
         /BIND ^[[11~ PARSE_COMMAND {echo You pressed F1!}
   Now when you press <escape>, EPIC does not know if you actually pressed
   the <escape> key, or if you pressed <f1>, and it should wait for more 
   characters.  It won't know this until more characters arrive.  But there
   is no guarantee that more characters will arrive.  This results in an 
   ambiguous keybinding.  EPIC doesn't know which keybinding to use.

   So each time epic runs into an ambiguous keybinding, it sets a timeout
   using this value.  If, at the end of the timeout, no further characters
   have arrived, it will assume you pressed the <escape> key and not the 
   <f1> key.

   There are two conflicting issues to balance when you set this character
      1) On a very slow telnet connection, it can take a long time for 
         characters to make it to the remote host.  So if you set this too
         low, some special keys may not work correctly (like the cursor 
         keys)
      2) It can be annoying to have to wait a very long time after you press
         <escape> for epic to decide that you did in fact press <escape> and
         not something else.

   So you want to set this value to something that is big enough not to cause
   your cursor keys and function keys to malfunction, but not so high as to 
   be annoying.

See Also:
   bind(4)

History:
   SET KEY_INTERVAL first appeared in EPIC4-1.1.7.
