[comp.emacs] Son of Changing Emacs Defaults

wex@wam.umd.edu (Richard Wexler) (07/23/90)

	First, I want to thank the several people who sent me
E-mail in response to my "baby questions" of last week about
changing defaults in an .emacs file.  I'm especially grateful to
David Lawrence (tale@turing.cs.rpi.edu), not only for his direct
response to me, but for his earlier posting giving general infor-
mation on .emacs files (Article 3468).  It kept me from looking
even dumber in my original message.

	Several people realized I'd already known about the minor
mode overwrite but was looking for a keystroke assigned to it.
As many pointed out, there isn't any, and I'd have to create my
own assignment if I wanted one.  I found success with

	(global-set-key "\C-xo" 'overwrite-mode)

but I noticed that a few postings spoke of

	(global-set-key "\C-[[247z" 'overwrite-mode)

as a way to bind overwrite to the Ins key, which is something I'd
prefer to Ctrl-c-o.  That syntax, however, generated the message
"Error in init file" and refused to take.  Any ideas?

	I think I'd like to ask volunteers to post an answer
here, in particular because someone in a recent message said this
syntax works on a Sun Microstation but someone else (Article
9051) complained it didn't.  It might be useful to know that I'm
running GNU Emacs on a DEC VAX 2000 with the OS DEC Ultrix in the
C-shell, logging in by modem from an IBM-XT compatible via Kermit
2.30.  Sure would be nice to toggle overwrite just by hitting the
Ins key, which doesn't seem good for any other purpose in Emacs.

	Thanks again for putting up with a novice user.

--
+ Richard Wexler +-----+ 1-301-454-7616 (w); 1-301-779-6906 (h) +------------+
| Chairman, Musicology | Dept. of Music, U. Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 |
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