🚀 go-pugleaf

>>>>> On 25 Feb 91 18:13:56 GMT, sinyaw@starbright.smsc.sony.com (Sin-Yaw Wang) said:


Sin-Yaw> I remember a thread of discussion on this group some weeks
Sin-Yaw> ago on someone trying to use C-h (backspace) to erase,
Sin-Yaw> instead of <DEL>.  Can whoever found out about this give me
Sin-Yaw> some help?

Subject: Problems with the Backspace / Delete keys in GNU Emacs
From: Chip Webb (Charles_A_Webb@ATT.COM)
Date: 11 Nov 89 [and 11/1990 below]

On some terminals, the backspace and the delete keys are placed
inappropriately for GNU emacs.  Some terminals have DEL in a hard to to
get location and have made BS easy to hit.  Other terminals put the two
keys so close together so that they are easily mis-typed.

The problem with BS and DEL when using GNU emacs is that BS (also known
as Control-H) invokes the online help system.  It is a bit
inappropriate, if not surprising, to get the help menu when all you were
trying to do was fix a typo.  Originally, it was intended that the
commands in emacs be mnemonically sensible, i.e.  C-f for forward
character C-b for backward character and C-h for help.

The usual solution to the problem is to re-bind C-h to invoke the
function delete-backward-character and find another key to invoke help.
Putting the following two lines in your ~/.emacs file will do this.
Help is then invoked with C-x h instead of C-h.  (C-x h is normally
bound to the command mark-whole-buffer; these commands undo that
binding) Of course you can put help-command anywhere you want, this is
just an example.

;;; Remap the backspace key to delete-backward-char and
;;; put help in a sensible place. 
(define-key global-map "\C-h" 'delete-backward-char)
(define-key global-map "\C-xh" 'help-command)

-----------------
From: Dan_Jacobson@ATT.COM
Date: Nov. 1990

Another method, swapping C-h and DEL at the lowest levels (so low that
99% of GNU Emacs never knows you are actually now hitting the key
labeled "DEL" for C-h and C-h for DEL) is to simply

(load "term/bobcat")

in your .emacs file.
[This file can be found in .../lisp/term/bobcat.el in the GNU Emacs
file tree.]

Now, if you are also remapping the keyboard with respect to C-s and
C-q, the above approach will overwrite your C-s/C-q modifications ...
[so write a function that does both remappings]
-- 
Dan_Jacobson@ATT.COM  Naperville IL USA  +1 708-979-6364