strange Gnome event problem

[Kin Cho]

Hi,

I want to do some processing in an user interruptible way.  The
logic is essentially this:

(catch 'done
  (let ((cnt 0))
    (while t
      (when (and (not (sit-for 1)) (= (read-char-exclusive) ?q))
        (throw 'done t))
      (message "%d" cnt)
      (setq cnt (1+ cnt)))))

So if I press q, the processing stops.

The problem is that if I switch desktop with the Gnome desktop
pager, the processing stops.  If I press a key, processing
resumes.

This problem doesn't happen if I stay in the same desktop, and
only change focus to another application.

Any idea how to fix/work-around this problem?

-kin

system info:

GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars) of 
2002-08-01 on nscldt26

Linux nscldt26 2.4.7-10 #1 Thu Sep 6 17:27:27 EDT 2001 i686 unknown

Installed gnome related packages:

gnome-libs-1.2.13-16
gnome-pim-1.2.0-13
libgnomeprint15-0.29-6
rep-gtk-gnome-0.15-6
switchdesk-gnome-3.9.7-1
gnome-applets-1.4.0.1-6
xmms-gnome-1.2.5-7
gnome-core-devel-1.4.0.4-38
gnome-games-devel-1.4.0.1-4
gnome-audio-1.0.0-12
pygnome-1.4.1-3
pygnome-libglade-1.4.1-3
gdk-pixbuf-gnome-0.11.0-8
gnome-audio-extra-1.0.0-12
gnome-user-docs-1.4.1-1
gnome-print-0.29-6
gnome-vfs-extras-0.1.3-1
gnome-core-1.4.0.4-38
gnome-utils-1.4.0-4
openssh-askpass-gnome-2.9p2-7
licq-gnome-1.0.3-7
gnome-games-1.4.0.1-4
gnome-libs-devel-1.2.13-16
gnome-vfs-1.0.1-17
gnome-media-1.2.3-4
rhn_register-gnome-2.7.2-7.x.2
up2date-gnome-2.7.2-7.x.6
gnome-pim-devel-1.2.0-13