Ferret for Linux, bug reading stdin

[Andrew Wittenberg <atw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A user just came to me with a problem that sounded familiar: passing a
script to Linux Ferret via STDIN, e.g.

    ferret < test.jnl

doesn't work properly; if test.jnl is longer than 512 characters
(including newlines), Ferret skips the first 512 characters.

The mail archives have something on this:

http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/Ferret/Mail_Archives/fu_2001/msg00598.html
http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/Ferret/Mail_Archives/fu_2001/msg00600.html
http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/Ferret/Mail_Archives/fu_2001/msg00603.html

Brent had indicated that this might be a problem with readline in Linux.  
Is there a solution other than the -server option, which suppresses the
often useful MODE VERIFY?  Writing a sub-512byte "wrapper script" is a
workaround -- but since this problem is rather confusing for new users,
would it be possible to fix?

Thanks for your help,

Andrew

+--------------------------------------------------------+
|   Dr. Andrew T. Wittenberg   |        GFDL/NOAA        |
|  Andrew.Wittenberg@noaa.gov  |      Princeton, NJ      |
+--------------------------------------------------------+