flush stdout; #we are writing this prompt on stderr, but stdout could still be writing to screen
#our first char on stderr is based on the 'lastchar' of stdout which we have recorded but may not have arrived on screen.
#The issue we're trying to avoid is the (stderr)prompt arriving midway through a large stdout chunk
#REVIEW - this basic attempt to get stderr/stdout to cooperate is experimental and unlikely to achieve the desired effect
#REVIEW - this basic attempt to get stderr/stdout to cooperate is experimental and unlikely to achieve the desired effect in all situations
#It the above flush does seem to help though.
#note that our 'flush stdout' tcl call does not wait if stdout is non-blocking
#todo - investigate if the overhead is reasonable for a special channel that accepts stdout and stderr records with a reader to send to console in chunk-sizes we know will be emitted correctly
# - reader of such channel could be ok to be blocking (on read? on write to real channels?)... except everything still needs to be interruptable by things like signals?
