set key_interval [<number>]

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

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.

SET KEY_INTERVAL first appeared in EPIC4-1.1.7.