Re: GOAL: Consistent Keyboard Configuration
On 24 May 1997, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> Hi,
> >>"Karl" == Karl M Hegbloom <karlheg@inetarena.com> writes:
>
> Karl> The newest XEmacs, 20.2 (compiled here w/o MULE), works fine for
> Karl> me, in that the backspace key deletes to the left, and delete
> Karl> sucks characters from the right, as you would expect after using
> Karl> a DOS/Windows PC. I used `xkeycaps` to ensure that
> Karl> [<-Backspace] sends ^H, and [Delete] sends ^?. I haven't had to
> Karl> load any special libraries to make it work like this, though in
> Karl> my site-start.el, I have:
>
> Karl> (define-key global-map '(control h) 'backward-delete-char)
>
> Karl> .... since [F1] works just fine for a help key. :-)
>
> See, I think this is buggy. I have been using Emacs for nearly
> a decade now, and nobody takes my C-H default away from me (in other
> words, people have had exposure to applications like emacs on other
> Unix platforms (and other distributions of Linux), and they should
> not have to change their expectations of finding help on C-H just
> because they run Debian)
Perhaps we can make an exception for stupid emacs (yes, I use it too :-)
I just had a look at the article again and it seams as the author silently
overrides ^H to behave like Backspace :-)
Anyways, I don't want to mess around with different meanings of
the Backspace/Delete keys all the time just because the author of Emacs
did this mistake!
Let me summarize (and please correct me if I'm wrong):
1) everyone agrees that "Backspace" (the "<--" key) should delete to the
left
2) that "Delete" (the "del" key, or "Entf" for germans :-) should delete
the key the cursor is standing on
3) ^H (that is Ctrl-H) should act like "Backspace"
4) except within emacs, where ^H should bring up the online help
Correct?
Does someone know if this is possible? If not, I suggest to drop rule 4).
Anyways, I'm talking about the "default kbd configuration" of a Debian
system. Everyone is free to override this with his own meaning of some
keys.
For example, we could ask the user at installation time of the emacs
package, whether he/she wants to
a) ^H _and_ Backspace to bring up the help screen
or
b) ^H _and_ Backspace delete the character to the left
Of course, some workaround we be good.
> Change thingslike this around, and see another jihad erupt ;-)
Hey, I'm not going to give up that early!
BTW, I not talking about implementing the keyboard configuration as
described in the LJ article. However, the article is good to understand
the concepts of key translation in a Linux system and the problems that
arrise with it.
Comments?
Thanks,
Chris
-- Christian Schwarz
schwarz@monet.m.isar.de, schwarz@schwarz-online.com,
Don't know Perl? schwarz@debian.org, schwarz@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de
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