Re: Backspace is delete

[Michael Robinson <robinson@netrinsics.com>]

Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org> writes:
>You should probably read /usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/FAQ.gz. Search
>for "Why doesn't my backspace, delete, or some other key work?". It's
>possible you've got too many uses of xmodmap and .Xresources
>*Translations - backspace and delete *should* work correctly out of the
>box now.

Thank you.  Unfortunately, the author of the FAQ offers a polemical diatribe
supporting one side of a religious debate, rather than a solution to my
problem (which would lie on the opposing side of said debate):

  At some point over the
  years, some misguided people assumed that, for this key, the key engraving
  should correspond to a similarly named ASCII code; namely, ASCII 8 or "BS"
  (backspace).  This was extremely imprudent because user expectations are
  what matter, not the enforcement of some kind of mapping between ASCII and
  key engravings on non-glyph keys.  For instance, ASCII does not address the
  notion of function keys; indeed, most of the first thirty-two codes in
  ASCII are only weakly applicable to terminals in the post-teletype age, let
  alone microcomputers that aren't even terminals at all.  Bottom line: the
  "backspace" key, the one in the upper-right of the alphabetic section,
  should generate ASCII 127 ("DEL") if a DEC VT-series terminal is being
  emulated.  End of story.  No exceptions.  Both the Linux console driver and
  xterm explicitly emulate DEC VT-series terminals, so the consequences for
  the backspace key should be clear.  The real tragedy is that at some
  point, the misconception discussed crept into termcap and terminfo data for
  xterms, and people got used to the backspace key (engraved with "Delete" on
  VT terminals, Macintoshes, and some other keyboards) generating ASCII 8 (or
  control-H) instead of ASCII 127 (or control-?), in flagrant incompatibility
  with every DEC VT terminal ever made, one model of which (the VT100) xterm
  was expressly written to emulate from its very inception in 1984.  The good
  news is, Tom Dickey, the upstream xterm maintainer, is taking steps to move
  everybody back to the Good Side of the Force with XFree86 4.0.  Debian's
  Keyboard Policy has anticipated that move.  So, if people do things
  correctly, there is no incompatibility between the Linux console and xterm.

I won't go into all the historical distortions, mischaracterizations and
outright errors presented above.  I'll simply note that it's my computer,
and I would prefer that it behave the way I intend it to, to the fullest
extent possible.

And, in this instance, the intent is that Backspace produce a backspace and
Delete produce a delete.  An Xresources example to accomplish this end would
be helpful, should one exist.

	-Michael Robinson