Re: GOAL: Consistent Keyboard Configuration
Hi,
>>"Christian" == Christian Schwarz <schwarz@monet.m.isar.de> writes:
Christian> Perhaps we can make an exception for stupid emacs (yes, I
Christian> use it too :-)
Christian> I just had a look at the article again and it seams as the
Christian> author silently overrides ^H to behave like Backspace :-)
Christian> Anyways, I don't want to mess around with different
Christian> meanings of the Backspace/Delete keys all the time just
Christian> because the author of Emacs did this mistake!
Unfortunately, I think this is a very poular package to
dismiss this easily ;-(.
Christian> Let me summarize (and please correct me if I'm wrong):
Christian> 1) everyone agrees that "Backspace" (the "<--" key) should
Christian> delete to the left
Christian> 2) that "Delete" (the "del" key, or "Entf" for germans :-)
Christian> should delete the key the cursor is standing on
Ok so far.
Christian> 3) ^H (that is Ctrl-H) should act like "Backspace"
Why on earth? Espescially under X, delete is delete, backspace
is backspace, and neither should be C-H. Is there a technical reason
for this?
Christian> except within emacs, where ^H should bring up the online
Christian> help
See above.
Christian> Correct?
Christian> Does someone know if this is possible? If not, I suggest to
Christian> drop rule 4). Anyways, I'm talking about the "default kbd
Christian> configuration" of a Debian system. Everyone is free to
Christian> override this with his own meaning of some keys.
I would rather remove support for Delete (which I personally
rarely use). Are we going to provide instructions on how exactly to
accomplish unsetting this behaviour? So that users may choose on a
user by user basis?
Currently, on a console, I get, under bash, and Emacs,
backspace deletes char backwards, and C-H gets help, and the same
thing happens on an xterm. I cheat. My backspace sends DEL under the
VT, and X emacs, but not in an xterm (where it sends C-H). (I have
forgotten how exactly I achieve all this on all the different
platforms I reside on, now ;-()
Christian> For example, we could ask the user at installation time of
Christian> the emacs package, whether he/she wants to
In this case the installer unilaterally dictates to the
preferences of *all* users of the machine.
Christian> a) ^H _and_ Backspace to bring up the help screen or ^H
Christian> _and_ Backspace delete the character to the left
But this is hardly the desired behaviour: we want backspace to
delete the character to the left, and C-H to pull up help. We
definitely don't want them both to do the same thing, ever.
>> Change thingslike this around, and see another jihad erupt ;-)
Christian> Hey, I'm not going to give up that early!
Then let loose the dogs of war ;-)
manoj
--
"The less you know about home computers the more you'll want the new
IBM PS/1." Advertisment in the Edmonton Journal, Thursday, December
13, 1990
Manoj Srivastava <url:mailto:srivasta@acm.org>
Mobile, Alabama USA <url:http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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