how can I stop my server from freezing when powershell is in 'select' mode? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I didn't believe this until I tested it a few times, but it's really happening.
Start rails server and app from powershell: 'rails s'
open a web page from that server
note how long the page took to get served up
now in powershell, select some text
reload the webpage from step 2
note that the webpage is taking forever to load
set up the windows so that you can see the powershell window and web page at the same time
go back to powershell and hit 'Enter' (so that the selected text is copied)
note that the web page loads as soon as the powershell window leaves select mode
TLDR: Rails server started via powershell won't serve pages while powershell is in 'Select' mode.
Is there some setting in powershell that will stop it from doing this? I can see it being helpful when selecting text in the middle of a bat run but when it stops my server it's flipping obnoxious.

Answer 1

Open a powershell window that you would normally start rails in. Open the properties dialog for the window and deselect QuickEdit Mode on the Options tab.

Answer 2

I had commented thinking it was just a general issue with the console system, and it probably still is as I cannot see how powershell is involved here as it's just a parent process, but it appears to be isolated to code that is watching for input. I think the rails server might be looking for input during its main loop, and perhaps selecting text in the console is blocking this. Take this simple script that loops - but does not watch for input - on a single thread, writing to a debug listener:
ps> $i = 0
ps> while (1) { sleep -seconds 1; [diagnostics.trace]::writeline("ping: $i"); $i++ }
Now, run sysinternals/microsoft's free DbgView tool to watch the output. I am using a separate tool instead of writing to the console because this is more like your scenario where web pages are being served in the background to a socket. You can get DbgView from:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647
When I select the text in the console, the script does not pause. I even stuffed in a check in the key buffer, and it still did not stop.
I think the Rails server is doing some kind of key checking which is being blocked somehow and interfering with its ability to process requests. It seems retarded, but my script doesn't fail even if I stuff in a check for [console]::keyavailable
ps> while (1) {
>> sleep -seconds 1;
>> [diagnostics.trace]::writeline("ping: $i");
>> $i++
>> $dummy = [console]::keyavailable
>> }
Looks like it's Rail's fault, albeit unintentionally of course.