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Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:05:58 -0500
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Subject: Alt key not recognized as Meta in xterm
From: Gary Carvell <gary DOT carvell AT gmail DOT com>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
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With the upgrade to Cygwin 1.7, I found that the Alt key is no longer
recognized as a Meta key in xterm. This means the Alt based command
line editing keys such as Alt-F/B for forward- and backward-word must
be entered with the Esc key instead. I assume this is related to the
internationalization changes in 1.7.

I liked the old behavior better, but had some trouble changing it
back. So here's my little hack for this in case anyone else finds it
useful. In your home directory, create a file .Xdefaults containing
this line:

    XTerm*vt100.metaSendsEscape: true

This effectively sets the Meta Sends Escape menu option for new
xterms, causing the Alt key to work again for command line editing.

I'd be glad to hear any background information on the key mapping
change, or better ways to restore the old behavior.

Gary

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