Subject: Re: Backspace and C-h in emacs -nw
From: Joe Buehler <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 12:24:27 -0400
Newsgroups: gmane.os.cygwin

Peter Ring wrote:

> C-h:
>   DEL runs the command backward-delete-char-untabify
> 
> Backspace:
>   C-d runs the command delete-char

- If you look at the emacs news (accessible from the help menu,
also in /usr/doc/emacs-21.2/NEWS), you will find an entry for
emacs 21.1 related to this, which I have attached below.

- Keep in mind that rxvt may also be doing something with the
key mappings -- I don't know.

- Control-H is the same as backspace on character-mode terminals,
so they cannot be distinguished.  If I understand correctly,
rxvt is an X11 app, so this is not related to your problem,
but it is something to keep in mind for the text-mode emacs running
in a cygwin console window.

Joe Buehler

** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.

The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.

On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
according to the keyboard used.  If the keyboard has both a Backspace
key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward.  On
keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
set to nil, and these keys delete backward.

If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
`keyboard-translate'.  The former functionality of C-h is available on
the F1 key.  You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.

Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.

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