It is not odd at all.

Comparing to the original code, play-sound blocks the current thread to
force you wait until it finished, start-process will folk another thread to
finish the work.


2013/2/2 Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net>

> Jason Rumney <jasonrumney@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > On Friday, 1 February 2013 02:32:05 UTC+8, Dan Espen  wrote:
> >>
> >> (setq ring-bell-function (lambda ()
> >>
> >>  (play-sound-file "/home/me/audio/tap2.au")))
> >>
> >> This works, but has an undesirable side effect.
> >>
> >> It looks like keystrokes are ignored until after the sound plays.
> >>
> >> Anyone have a suggestion?
> >
> > Use start-process to have an external program play the sound.
>
> You're right.  Thanks.
>
> This is working for me:
>
> (setq ring-bell-function (lambda ()
>  (start-process "ding" nil "play" "/home/me/audio/tap2.au")))
>
> Odd that invoking an external program and reading a file
> over and over works better but it does.
>
> --
> Dan Espen
>