Daniel submitted this excellent bug report for a bug that has really been causing me problems, which was claimed to have been fixed, but definitely is not fixed in Emacs 23.3.1 or 24.3.1. 

Chong mentioned it was fixed in Emacs 23, but said he didn't recall who fixed it.

Apparently it was put back in and has been back for a long time. 

Could you please investigate to see who fixed it, and who put it back in, and WHY? 

This bug REALLY needs to be fixed, as it makes shell mode practically unusable, and as Daniel described, can lead to some very dangerous and inexplicable accidents. 

And whoever put the bug back in after it was fixed last time needs to stop doing that, please. 

-Don