Fabrice> The timer is complaining that nothing is catching his timeout. Fabrice> Did I miss something? I saw the fix about the zero interval timeouts, but it doesn't seem to be the problem. Apprently, the logic behind with-timeout is flawed or I'm misusing it. The way it is written in timer-funcs.el, the timer won't be deleted if the job inside completes. My guess is that both last forms should be outside the (when (catch ... ) ... ), ie: --- timer-funcs.el 2005-02-04 09:08:22.000000000 +0100 +++ timer-funcs.el 2005-01-25 11:25:10.000000000 +0100 ＠＠ -188,9 +188,9 ＠＠ ,seconds nil nil t with-timeout-tag)) (setq with-timeout-value (progn ,＠body)) nil)) - ,＠timeout-forms) - (delete-itimer with-timeout-timer) - with-timeout-value)))) + ,＠timeout-forms + (delete-itimer with-timeout-timer) + with-timeout-value)))) ;;;###autoload (defun y-or-n-p-with-timeout (prompt seconds default-value) My test function works much better: (global-set-key [(control c) (control a)] '(lambda () (interactive) (if (with-timeout (4 nil) (y-or-n-p "Do you really want to exit Emacs ? ")) (message "Exited") (message "")))) Fabrice