KFL@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU ("Keith F. Lynch") (02/22/86)
From: GKN%OAK.SAINET.MFENET@LLL-MFE.ARPA
... Under the monitor I'm field testing, there is a
command to remap any key into the <ESC> key. I usually map the ` character
to <ESC>...
Then how do you send a ` character?
... Somehow I doubt that DEC gives you the option of changing
what the keyboard sends. ^space isn't a null??
Control-space should not be a null. Control-@ should be a null.
Pressing a character key while holding down control should subtract 64
from that character code, or should leave it alone. On the H19
control-space is a space, since 32-64 is not in the ASCII set.
The IBM-PC keyboard (despite its strange key placements) does this
right, as it allows user software complete control.
...Keithphil@AMDCAD.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (02/23/86)
Control-space has ALWAYS been a null in DEC's world. I suppose I could
flame about HP, WYSE, and Televideo terminals for violating the RS232
spec for DTE equipment by using female connectors, but that would do
about as much as your complaint about control-space.
(I must admit I find control-space very convenient in emacs for marking.)
--
Noah, this is God speaking. I'm going to make it rain for forty days
and forty nights. In California.
Phil Ngai +1 408 749 5720
UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil
ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.comKFL@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU ("Keith F. Lynch") (02/26/86)
From: decwrl!amdcad!phil@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Phil Ngai)
Control-space has ALWAYS been a null in DEC's world. ...
(I must admit I find control-space very convenient in emacs for marking.)
It may be convenient (though I don't find it so), but it sure makes it
hard to teach. Many times users have asked me why Emacs was not
responding to the control-@ command. Pressing control-@ doesn't do
anything on a VT100 keyboard. And changing the documentation to claim
that the command is control-space wouldn't be useful, as most of our
terminals are non-DEC, on which control-@ is a control-@. The only
solution is to tell user that on DEC terminals, control-@ is generated
by pressing control-space. An additional complication that novice
Emacs users should NOT have to deal with.
Similar problems with generating control-\, control-], control-^,
and control-_, all of which are important Emacs commands.
Many users simply avoid using any DEC terminals, even if they have
to wait in line for other terminals.
VT200 style keyboards are not an issue for us, since it was decided
before the VT200 came out that we would stop buying DEC terminals.
I don't think it is too much to ask that DEC terminals have a setup
parameter to switch the control keys into their proper positions as a
user option.
...Keith