On 5/26/17 4:17 PM, Francesco Potortì wrote:

> if Octave is running a long command it
> locks Emacs until the long command execution finishes and the prompt is
> returned.

Yes, this problem should be common for all modes that use the REPL for 
fetching information like this. E.g. python-eldoc-function.

Normally, we don't see long-running commands in the user REPL. Or don't 
expect the user to switch back to the source buffer and continue 
editing. Octave might be a significant exception in that regard.

Anyway, please try the attached combined patch and see if it fixes your 
problem.

> It also makes damage in some other cases that I cannot identify.

If you have company-mode installed and enabled, similar problem can 
occur (when completion is triggered automatically).