Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 12:09:42 -0400
From: kagel AT quasar DOT bloomberg DOT com
To: hkelly AT techreps DOT com
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: Re: problems with demacs
Reply-To: kagel AT ts1 DOT bloomberg DOT com

   Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 07:48:52 -0600
   From: hkelly AT techreps DOT com (H. Kelly Shuldberg)

.........

   My problem is that I can't seem to get the backspace/delete key to work as
   a delete key.  I have tried uncommenting the (load-library "term/bobcat")
   line in _emacs as suggested in the FAQ, but it makes no difference.  I've
   also tried explicitly setting the backspace-delete variable to C-h there,
   but again, it has no effect.  In fact, I tried an experiment where I moved
   _emacs out my home directory, deleted the copy in home, and started demacs
   again, and it it didn't make any difference that _emacs was missing
   altogether.  I have the HOME, TERMCAP, TERM, etc. variables set to their
   proper values in a BAT file that I call from autoexec.bat.  Does anyone have 
   any suggestions for what it is that I'm doing wrong?  I wondered if I needed 
   a full-blown elisp interpreter in addition to whatever lisp stuff is
   contained in the demacs package.  If that is the problem, can someone direct
   me to an ftp site where I can get one?  There is an xlisp at
   oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos,
   and I wondered if that would work.  

   Any help or insight that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
   Thanks in advance.

The real problem is that R.S. is adament that the proper mnemonic function of
C-h is HELP and the proper function of delete is to delete.  It has, therefore,
been made *VERY* difficult to change this behavior.  The only environment under
which I have had success in this is X-Windows which treats the backspace key as
an independent key rather than mapping it to C-h.  You might try remapping the
[backspace] key in your .emacs (_emacs ??) file as:

(global-set-key "C-h" 'delete-backward-char)

or

(global-set-key [backspace] 'delete-backward-char)


This is your only chance (the first works under UNIX without X-Windows ...).

-- 
Art S. Kagel, kagel AT ts1 DOT bloomberg DOT com

That is the best government which desires to make the people happy,
and knows how to make them happy.
	-- Lord Macaulay --