Re: Bug#6014: emacs shouldn't use C-h for "help"
On 19 Dec 1996, Sudish Joseph wrote:
> Also, Linux has it better than many other systems when it comes to
> Emacs: it DTRT on the Linux console! As such, it'd be kinda ironic to
> change the default behaviour for the case that occurs the least often:
> running inside an xterm. The C-h problem is most acute outside of X.
> Your average Debian user will _never_ encounter it.
Joseph, you are completely right. Most people don't use emacs inside
xterm, only on Linux console or in X (where it doesn't matter wether
Backspace is mapped to Backspace or Delete).
About xterm: I already posted it once, and I will post it once again
(xbase maintainer, please notice!), you must just add the following lines
into /etc/X11/Xresources (btw Borik told me that this also works in new
rxvt):
! Make VT100 Backspace send ^?, and Meta<Key>Backspace send ^[^?.
*VT100.Translations: #override ~Meta<Key>BackSpace: string(0x7F)\n\
Meta<Key>BackSpace: string(0x1B) string(0x7F)
Don't you all understand that this is what you're supposed to do? Don't
you understand that Unix uses Delete to erase previous character? Don't
you understand that people don't always work on Linux boxen from the
console? Don't you understand that this so-called "bug" is not
emacs-specific? And isn't it easier just to add those damn lines to that
bloody config file instead of writing the same shit over and over again?
You all (including me) said all we wanted in 5 first messages, but we keep
posting in this thread over and over again.
> > I don't think so. Fixing this bug might even reduce the traffic on
> > the emacs newsgroups - Debian users won't complain there about the
> > backspace key not working right in xterm :-).
>
> Um, and who'll answer questions like "the manual says I can hit C-x r
> C-h and get a list of all keyseqs that start with the prefix C-x r,
> but it doesn't work on my machine". Typical responses start with
> "which OS are you running?". Answer? "Linux".
This is a very good point. I don't think that we must make a
Debian-specific fix, so people on networks of Suns and Linux boxen will
think carefully what machine to choose to run emacs on.
> a) I would not call it a bug. It is petty at best, and offensive to
> the program's maintainers at worst.
> b) This is not a big issue for Linux based systems.
That's right. This thread made a lot of noise of nothing. People are too
lazy to use their moosen to paste three lines to Xresources file, they
prefer to type a lot of stuff and send it to the mailing lists.
> c) Debian shouldn't be meddling with the interface.
Right. You may also say things like "Home key don't work in emacs under
xterm"... After all, you have ~/.emacs, /etc/X11/Xmodmap and
/usr/doc/HOWTO/mini/Key-Setup.gz, use those three to remap everything
everywhere.
Vadik in heat.
++ _
Vadik V. (_` vadik@cs.huji.ac.il alias: vadik@debian.org
Vygonets (_.lf For public PGP key, email me with subject "get pgp key".
Linux hackers are funny people: They count the time in patchlevels.
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