Re: emacs-snapshot keybinding problem

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 01.01.2006 um 19:04 schrieb Angelina Carlton:

> > You have to make a difference between GNU Emacs running inside a
> > terminal (emulation), or as an X client in its own window. The keys
> > you set with xmodmap do not exist in nowindows mode. XTerm and other
> > terminal emulations have kind of 'text bindings' to keys, particularly
> > to function keys.
>
> This seems odd to me, but I will take your advice. "xterm" for example 
> is
> a terminal emulator for X windows, as is my terminal, "urxvt" so I 
> would
> have thought xmodmap would be sufficient here. or do you mean that 
> Emacs
> makes a distinction if called with -nw? I always thought the program
> (urxvt in my case) is a client of the X server and would inherit
> xmodmaps settings for that session.

The terminal emulation is of course an X11 client. But Emacs inside it 
not. It's just a shell command. In terminals GNU Emacs uses ncurses or 
similiar means to 'draw' its window(s). GNU Emacs too uses different 
interfaces to receive the 'key events.' Only the windowing system's 
clients see these events, shell commands receive some ANSI codes, as 
sent by the terminal emulation. In X11 this one translates from X11 key 
events to ANSI terminal codes.

You can see the difference when pressing C-q and then a function key. 
In a terminal emulation this has some sense, in an X11 client it's 
non-sense, maybe a ^@ or ASCII-Nul worth (less than 2¢). You too can 
check with C-h k whether GNU Emacs 'sees' in a terminal any modifiers 
(it can't, because the X11 interface is not activated).

--
Greetings

  Pete

"I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've
always worked for me."
                -- Hunter S. Thompson