xserver host id ?? (del / backspace problems)

["Lewis, James M. " <Jim.Lewis@alcoa.com>]

I am having backspace/del problems with xterm.  Things work out right
on the debian server if erase = del.  Things work out right on exceed
with erase = backspace.  What I am trying to do is put some commands in
my .profile (or .bash_profile, or .bashrc) to set the erase char
properly.
So far, I can use the DISPLAY env var to pick the linux hosts.  I am
looking
for a better way to do it.

Does anyone know of a way to return information from the xserver to
xterm
so that I can tell if it is a linux system?  Alternately, is there a way
to
tell if I am using exceed from the xterm?  There is a vendor string in
the
exceed protocol configuration but I don't know how to access it.  I am
sure
that it can be done from a c prog.  I just don't know quite where to
start
looking...

tia
jim