Re: Emacs21 : the Backspace key

[Marco Gerards]

m_m <mm.e3p@email.it> writes:

> In an X session, the first time that I call Emacs from an Xterm in Blackbox,
> I can't use the Backspace key for deleting the left characters.
>
> If I push the Backspace key one time, nothing happens, two time Emacs says:
> "You have typed C-h, the help character".

This happens because C-h and Backspace have the same effect: they
generate ASCII code 8.  So it is not working as you might expect.
Using google I found some more information about this:

http://www.sunsite.ualberta.ca/Documentation/Gnu/emacs-21.1/html_node/faq_141.html

This behavior can be changed using stty:

$ stty erase ^?
(for example)

If you want to make xterm send ^? instead of ^h you can add some lines
to your ~.Xdefaults, like it is described on the emacs wiki:

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/BackspaceKey

This is also the best fix I know.

I am not really sure why it does not happen by default, it would be
really nice if someone could explain that to me :).  I expect that it
has to do with compatibility with old software or so...

> If now I exit from Emacs and then I recall it, I've the same thing still,
> however if I close the window with Emacs and then I open another Xterm with
> the editor, now I can use the Backspace key for deleting the left characters.

That is weird.

> I tried also to remove the line with the Xterm from the file '.xinitrc' and I
> opened Xterm only by blackbox-menu: in the first window i can't use the 
> Backspace
> in Emacs, in the second window I can delete the left characters.

I'm not sure if I understand this, but I hope that problem will be
fixed with the information that can be found on the emacs wiki. :)

--
Marco