Re: a) What ways can Meta be put in a command?... b) What's the difference between Esc-x and M-x

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Thomas Shannon <tshanno@bearingthenews.com> writes:

> Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:
>
>> Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@Web.DE> writes:
>>
>>>>  b) What's the difference between Esc-x and M-x
>>>
>>> In a terminal emulation M-x does not exist, you have to use
>>> Esc-x. The GNU Emacs variants with some windowing support also
>>> support the Esc-x work-around.
>>
>> On paleo-computers, was the Escape key placed anywhere else than
>> it is on today's keyboards? The reason I ask is - well, just try
>> hitting a couple of familiar shortcuts, but instead of Meta, use
>> Escape. I think it would take a master at the accordion to be
>> productive using that.
>
> 1)  Totally agree.
>
> 2) Think how bad it would be if, like the way people usually use the
> meta key, you would have to simultaneously hold down Esc and the key.
> At least you can press Esc, let up on it, then press the second key and it
> works fine.  Still awkward but, as I don't know how to play accordion,
> thank goodness its much easier.  :)

On a TTY, (see picture url in my other answer), I'm pretty sure you
could leave ESC down while pressing the other key.   Of course, it
didn't flip a bit on the next byte sent like shift or control, but
instead sent a byte 27, but for the typist, it was pretty much the same
UX.


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
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