[comp.emacs] DS3100, Gnu-emacs, and X11

hartzell@spike.colorado.edu (George Hartzell) (07/16/89)

I am using Gnu-emacs 18.54 on a color DECstation 3100 running
UWS2.1/3.1.  I built it using the s-bsd-4.3.h and m-mips.h files,
changing the byte order pound define and the -lmld ld flag in
m-mips.h.  It seems to work fine, but after a couple of minutes of
work something weird happens.  The most noticable manifestation is
that key-click gets turned on, and (less reproducibly) certain
keystrokes start disappearing.  The missing keystrokes *might* be
being interpreted as the "compose key" somehow; the first key stroke
is ignored, the second generates a beep, and the third is recognized.

Has anyone out there had similar experiences, or does anyone have any
suggestions for work arounds/fixes?  


George Hartzell			                  (303) 492-4535
 MCD Biology, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309
hartzell@Boulder.Colorado.EDU  ..!{ncar,nbires}!boulder!hartzell

riley@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Daniel S. Riley) (07/16/89)

In article <10094@boulder.Colorado.EDU> hartzell@spike.colorado.edu (George Hartzell) writes:
>I am using Gnu-emacs 18.54 on a color DECstation 3100 running
>UWS2.1/3.1. [...] It seems to work fine, but after a couple of minutes of
>work something weird happens.  The most noticable manifestation is
>that key-click gets turned on, and (less reproducibly) certain
>keystrokes start disappearing.  The missing keystrokes *might* be
>being interpreted as the "compose key" somehow; the first key stroke
>is ignored, the second generates a beep, and the third is recognized.

How did you compile it?  In particular, what optimization level?  Does
this still happen if you log in from a terminal (or telnet or decnet)
(i.e. is it specific to the X11 interface)?

I had a similar problem, though it only seemed to manifest itself in the
minibuffer (usually when I was doing an i-search), but only if I was using
the X11 interface.  Logging in via DECnet it worked fine.  So I switched 
from -O to -g, and it worked fine.  Eventually, I isolated it to an 
optimization bug compiling x11term.c, but couldn't track it down any further 
(I normally have to see assembly to figure these things out, but the pmax 
assembler is still beyond my ken).  So I recompiled with -O on everything 
but x11term.c (which, yuck, I compiled by hand without -O), and everything 
seems to work.  I suppose we (meaning the computer group here--I'm just a
user) should submit an SPR on this, or something, but we haven't yet.
Anyway, this may be your problem too.

-Dan Riley (riley@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu, cornell!batcomputer!riley)
-Wilson Lab, Cornell U.

hartzell@spike (George Hartzell) (07/18/89)

In article <10094@boulder.Colorado.EDU>, hartzell@spike (George Hartzell) writes:
>I am using Gnu-emacs 18.54 on a color DECstation 3100 running
>UWS2.1/3.1.  I built it using the s-bsd-4.3.h and m-mips.h files,
>changing the byte order pound define and the -lmld ld flag in
>m-mips.h.  It seems to work fine, but after a couple of minutes of
>work something weird happens.  The most noticable manifestation is
>that key-click gets turned on, and (less reproducibly) certain
>keystrokes start disappearing.  The missing keystrokes *might* be
>being interpreted as the "compose key" somehow; the first key stroke
>is ignored, the second generates a beep, and the third is recognized.
>

One more peice of information: this behaviour expresses itself most
reliably when using the emacs based news reader "gnews".  I compiled
emacs using the -g flag to cc.

g.
George Hartzell			                  (303) 492-4535
 MCD Biology, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309
hartzell@Boulder.Colorado.EDU  ..!{ncar,nbires}!boulder!hartzell

utterbac@husc8.HARVARD.EDU (Margot Utterback) (07/20/89)

The problem with mini-buffer dialogs invoking the compose key mode has been
reported to DEC and an SPR submitted.  The problem goes away in the latest
version of EMACS however.  

Unfortunately, even in the latest version you still cannot use the compose
key as a meta key.

Brian Utterback

mellon@zayante.pa.dec.com (Ted Lemon) (07/21/89)

Brian Utterback writes:
>Unfortunately, even in the latest version you still cannot use the compose
>key as a meta key.

That's not true.   I'm using the compose key as a meta key right now,
on a DECstation 3100.   I've been able to use the compose key as a
meta key even on a MicroVax running VMS.

You might have to run xmodmap to make the keyboard work that way, but
I don't remember that being a problem.   As far as I can remember from
before I'd set up my xmodmap, the compose key still worked as a meta
key - it just screwed things up if I happened to be in the wrong
window.

On VMS, I had to actually hack emacs to run in its own window, it
works fine now.

			       _MelloN_

rich@sendai.sendai.ann-arbor.mi.us (K. Richard Magill) (07/22/89)

In article <2242@husc6.harvard.edu> utterbac@husc8.HARVARD.EDU (Margot Utterback) writes:

   The problem with mini-buffer dialogs invoking the compose key mode has been
   reported to DEC and an SPR submitted.  The problem goes away in the latest
   version of EMACS however.  

   Unfortunately, even in the latest version you still cannot use the compose
   key as a meta key.

Our decstation isn't color, but I don't have this problem.

--
rich.