Re: Mapping cmd to alt in X with linux keycodes
On Thu, 2001-10-11 at 02:43, Ethan Benson wrote:
> I agree, the key labeled alt should be alt by default. However the
> fact is Apple's keyboards put alt in the wrong damn place and anyone
> who has ever typed on a normal keyboard will be annoyed as hell at
> this and thus need a trivial and quick way to fix it.
Of course us poor incorrigible emacs user are quite happy with the
command key being were it is, and making option Alt... That way, the
command key becomes Meta, and we have both Meta and Alt... (Throw in a
Hyper and Super, and let the custom keybinding emacs madness begin!)
And Meta is were you expect it (assuming you have been using alt instead
of meta in the past...)
Of course this is of absolutey no consolation whatsoever to non-emacs
users, and more importantly, new uses. To top it all off, there is
always the fun of WM's and what key bindings they want... Often these
conflict with Emacs... Or, if they don't, they are at least less
convienient because of emacs. For example, in my case, I can either have
the default WM modifier be Alt or Meta (Sawfish has a really neat way to
switch this), If it is alt, it is harder to access, as it is smaller (I
am using option for Alt), and not adjacent to the spacebar. But if I use
Meta (my Command key), I run the risk of wierdness in emacs... (And to
make maters worse, the Gnome project is way behind on the standardizing
their application shortcut keys... Many more bizare problems lay there,
not the least of which is a common absence of any shortcuts...)
As to what the defaults should be, I agree that the option key should be
alt, though admittedly because that's were I like it, and that there
definitely needs to be a nice, friendly way to change this quickly and
easily.
Gregory P. Keeney
Mad Computer Scientist
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