rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu (Robert Maier) (07/14/88)
I plan on buying a new terminal for personal use. Since I use Emacs a
good bit, a Meta key is high on my list of requirements. An escape
key, even a reasonably placed one, is a poor substitute.
Grepping for the `km' attribute (i.e., Meta key) in the Berkeley
termcap file turns up only the following:
Mu|sun|Sun Microsystems Workstation console:
SD|supdup|SUPDUP virtual terminal:
MX|dmchat|dmchat version of datamedia 2500:
hz|2392|hp2392|hp2392a:
y7|t10|teleray 10 special:
Are the last three really the only choices I have? Does anyone have
any other recommendations?
To be effective a Meta key should be as close to the Shift key as the
Control key is. Switching from Control-v to Meta-v should be
painless...
======================================================================
Robert S. Maier | Internet: rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu
Dept. of Math. | UUCP: ..{allegra,cmcl2,hao!noao}!arizona!amethyst!rsm
Univ. of Arizona | Bitnet: maier@arizrvax
Tucson, AZ 85721 | Phone: +1 602 621 6893 / +1 602 621 2617flash@ee.qmc.ac.uk (Flash Sheridan) (07/18/88)
The Macintosh end of uw (Unix Windows) has an option to make the option key a meta-key. I haven't gotten it to work (with Jove 4.9), but haven't tried too hard. uw should run on a 128K Mac, which you should be able to get used real cheap. uw was posted to sources.unix awhile ago and is insanely great and free. Its ansi mode seems not to clear too well, though (I re-bind ^L to clear and redraw, and have to use it alot.) From: flash@ee.qmc.ac.uk (Flash Sheridan) Reply-To: sheridan@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk or_perhaps_Reply_to: flash@cs.qmc.ac.uk
bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) (07/19/88)
In article <784@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu> rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu (Robert Maier) writes: >I plan on buying a new terminal for personal use. Since I use Emacs >a good bit, a Meta key is high on my list of requirements. An escape >key, even a reasonably placed one, is a poor substitute. Don't buy a terminal - buy something that will do terminal emulation as a sideline, as well as a bunch of other stuff. But be sure that whatever you buy runs software can do very, very good terminal emulation. Then, you can be better off, even for terminal emulation, than if you bought single-function, special-purpose hardware. I use "uw" on my Mac at home when talking to the UNIX machines at work, which gives me up to seven windows. It almost makes a 1200bps modem tolerable, and 19200 is plenty nice at the office when my Sun is down. Anyway, uw offers a Meta key, bound to the Option key on the Macintosh keyboard. It can be configured to either emit the true eight-bit character, or prepend an escape character before sending the character for whatever key you've chorded with it. >To be effective a Meta key should be as close to the Shift key as the >Control key is. Switching from Control-v to Meta-v should be >painless... The Option key is located (on a Classic Mac or Mac Plus keyboard, anyway) between the Clover key (control) and the Shift key, on the lower-left side of the main keypad. -=- Bob Sutterfield, Department of Computer and Information Science The Ohio State University; 2036 Neil Ave. Columbus OH USA 43210-1277 bob@cis.ohio-state.edu or ...!{att,pyramid,killer}!cis.ohio-state.edu!bob
admin@cs.ex.ac.uk (System Administrator) (07/22/88)
In article <784@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu> rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu (Robert Maier) writes: >I plan on buying a new terminal for personal use. Since I use Emacs a >good bit, a Meta key is high on my list of requirements. An escape : : >Are the last three really the only choices I have? Does anyone have >any other recommendations? We use the Wyse 85 emulating vt100 and are very pleased with it. The Meta key (or <Compose Char>), <SHIFT> and <CTRL> keys are close to each other. The <ESC> is at an awkward place but with the meta key the <ESC> is rarely needed.
michael@pbinfo.uucp (Michael Schmidt) (07/22/88)
In article <784@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu>, rsm@amethyst (Robert Maier) writes: >I plan on buying a new terminal for personal use. Since I use Emacs a >good bit, a Meta key is high on my list of requirements. An escape >key, even a reasonably placed one, is a poor substitute. Surprisingly an Atari ST does the job! Buy one, get Uniterm 2.0d and you have all these fancy thingies like ^S,^Q and meta key in conjunction with an vt200 emulation. Don't know why this works, but it works fine. I am using it at the moment. -- Michael Schmidt, Universitaet-GH Paderborn, FB 17, Warburger Str.100, D-4790 Paderborn, West Germany Mail: michael@pbinfo.UUCP or michael%pbinfo@uunet.uu.net
flash@ee.qmc.ac.uk (Flash Sheridan) (07/25/88)
In article <18123@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) writes: >In article <784@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu> rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu (Robert Maier) writes: > >Anyway, uw offers a Meta key, bound to the Option key on the Macintosh >keyboard. The meta key works only on the old Macs, not on the Plus or SE. Other than that, uw is wonderful on any of them. From: flash@ee.qmc.ac.uk (Flash Sheridan) Reply-To: sheridan@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk or_perhaps_Reply_to: flash@cs.qmc.ac.uk
julian@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Julian Cowley) (07/29/88)
In article <784@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu> rsm@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu (Robert Maier) writes: >I plan on buying a new terminal for personal use. Since I use Emacs a >good bit, a Meta key is high on my list of requirements. An escape >key, even a reasonably placed one, is a poor substitute. > >Grepping for the `km' attribute (i.e., Meta key) in the Berkeley >termcap file turns up only the following: > > Mu|sun|Sun Microsystems Workstation console: > SD|supdup|SUPDUP virtual terminal: > MX|dmchat|dmchat version of datamedia 2500: > hz|2392|hp2392|hp2392a: > y7|t10|teleray 10 special: Also try looking for the `MT' attribute. This is another flag for the meta key which I found by looking in the Emacs term.c file. I haven't seen it documented anywhere else but it does turn up several entries in the /etc/termcap file. On my system (BSD), this is what I get: vs|xterm|vs100|xterm terminal emulator (X window system) D3|dm3025|datamedia 3025a: hz|2392|hp2392|hp2392a: <-- repeat of above So there you have two more choices to look at. In the meantime, here is a source file for PC-Kermit that will simulate a Meta key on an IBM PC standard keyboard. Kermit is the only comm program for IBMs I have found so far that actually lets you customize the keyboard. On top of that, Kermit is free. To use this, you will need to have at least version 2.30, which you should be able to find on your local host or on a local bulletin board. The previous versions of Kermit use a different syntax for setting the scan codes. If you are ambitious enough, you could probably write a small program that could convert from the new syntax to the old. The original idea for this was some take files posted by Martin Neitzel about a year ago. They were written for an older version of Kermit, so the set commands were a bit different. Also, they were set up to send two characters (ESC xx), which is not really emulating a true meta key. Unfortunately, in the new versions of Kermit, they decided to ignore certain scan codes (don't ask me why), so some of the more important keys don't work. These are any key combinations with the following characters: [ ] { } ; : ' " ` ~ , . < > / ? \ | SPC DEL M-ESC doesn't work, either. To get around this, you'll just have to use the old ESC key method. You could probably set up the function keys to fill in the gaps, but I didn't do this because I felt the mapping should be a personal preference. Don't forget to turn on the meta flag within Emacs, otherwise it will just treat a meta key as a normal one. You can turn on the meta flag permanently by putting the following in your .emacs file: (setq meta-flag t) or by putting a :km attribute in the local TERMCAP entry for the terminal that you use. While this is still not a complete Meta key emulation, it's better than nothing! I'd still like to find out some answers to the original question about which terminals have a true Meta key. Perhaps it would be a good idea for the FSF to distribute a list of terminals that have Meta keys in the etc/TERMS file. Enjoy! #! /bin/sh # This is a shell archive. Remove anything before this line, then unpack # it by saving it into a file and typing "sh file". To overwrite existing # files, type "sh file -c". You can also feed this as standard input via # unshar, or by typing "sh <file", e.g.. If this archive is complete, you # will see the following message at the end: # "End of shell archive." # Wrapped by Julian Cowley (julian@uhccux) # on Fri Jul 29 00:17:05 1988 GMT-10:00 PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/ucb ; export PATH if test -f emacs.tak -a "${1}" != "-c" ; then echo shar: Will not over-write existing file \"emacs.tak\" else echo shar: Extracting \"emacs.tak\" \(3310 characters\) sed "s/^X//" >emacs.tak <<'END_OF_emacs.tak' X; Emacs meta key simulation for PC-Kermit ver. 2.30 and greater X; X; Note that some key scan codes are ignored by Kermit, therefore X; you will still have to use the ESC key. These are key X; combinations with any of the following keys: X; X; [ ] { } ; : ' " , . < > / ? \ | ` ~ SPC DEL X; X; Written by Julian Cowley (julian@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu), 7/28/88 X; Xset key \3961 \128 ; M-C-@ or M-C-SPC Xset key \3358 \129 ; M-C-a Xset key \3376 \130 ; M-C-b Xset key \3374 \131 ; M-C-c Xset key \3360 \132 ; M-C-d Xset key \3346 \133 ; M-C-e Xset key \3361 \134 ; M-C-f Xset key \3362 \135 ; M-C-g Xset key \3363 \136 ; M-C-h Xset key \3351 \137 ; M-C-i or M-C-TAB Xset key \3364 \138 ; M-C-j or M-C-LFD Xset key \3365 \139 ; M-C-k Xset key \3366 \140 ; M-C-l Xset key \3378 \141 ; M-C-m or M-C-RET Xset key \3377 \142 ; M-C-n Xset key \3352 \143 ; M-C-o Xset key \3353 \144 ; M-C-p Xset key \3344 \145 ; M-C-q Xset key \3347 \146 ; M-C-r Xset key \3359 \147 ; M-C-s Xset key \3348 \148 ; M-C-t Xset key \3350 \149 ; M-C-u Xset key \3375 \150 ; M-C-v Xset key \3345 \151 ; M-C-w Xset key \3373 \152 ; M-C-x Xset key \3349 \153 ; M-C-y Xset key \3372 \154 ; M-C-z X ; M-C-[ or M-ESC X ; M-C-\ X ; M-C-] Xset key \3965 \158 ; M-C-^ Xset key \3970 \159 ; M-C-_ X ; M-SPC Xset key \2936 \161 ; M-! X ; M-" Xset key \2938 \163 ; M-# Xset key \2939 \164 ; M-$ Xset key \2940 \165 ; M-% Xset key \2942 \166 ; M-& X ; M-' Xset key \2944 \168 ; M-( Xset key \2945 \169 ; M-) Xset key \2943 \170 ; M-* Xset key \2947 \171 ; M-+ X ; M-, Xset key \2434 \173 ; M-- X ; M-. X ; M-/ Xset key \2433 \176 ; M-0 Xset key \2424 \177 ; M-1 Xset key \2425 \178 ; M-2 Xset key \2426 \179 ; M-3 Xset key \2427 \180 ; M-4 Xset key \2428 \181 ; M-5 Xset key \2429 \182 ; M-6 Xset key \2430 \183 ; M-7 Xset key \2431 \184 ; M-8 Xset key \2432 \185 ; M-9 X ; M-: X ; M-; X ; M-< Xset key \2435 \189 ; M-= X ; M-> X ; M-? Xset key \2937 \192 ; M-@ Xset key \2846 \193 ; M-A Xset key \2864 \194 ; M-B Xset key \2862 \195 ; M-C Xset key \2848 \196 ; M-D Xset key \2834 \197 ; M-E Xset key \2849 \198 ; M-F Xset key \2850 \199 ; M-G Xset key \2851 \200 ; M-H Xset key \2839 \201 ; M-I Xset key \2852 \202 ; M-J Xset key \2853 \203 ; M-K Xset key \2854 \204 ; M-L Xset key \2866 \205 ; M-M Xset key \2865 \206 ; M-N Xset key \2840 \207 ; M-O Xset key \2841 \208 ; M-P Xset key \2832 \209 ; M-Q Xset key \2835 \210 ; M-R Xset key \2847 \211 ; M-S Xset key \2836 \212 ; M-T Xset key \2838 \213 ; M-U Xset key \2863 \214 ; M-V Xset key \2833 \215 ; M-W Xset key \2861 \216 ; M-X Xset key \2837 \217 ; M-Y Xset key \2860 \218 ; M-Z X ; M-[ X ; M-\ X ; M-] Xset key \2941 \222 ; M-^ Xset key \2946 \223 ; M-_ X ; M-` Xset key \2334 \225 ; M-a Xset key \2352 \226 ; M-b Xset key \2350 \227 ; M-c Xset key \2336 \228 ; M-d Xset key \2322 \229 ; M-e Xset key \2337 \230 ; M-f Xset key \2338 \231 ; M-g Xset key \2339 \232 ; M-h Xset key \2327 \233 ; M-i Xset key \2340 \234 ; M-j Xset key \2341 \235 ; M-k Xset key \2342 \236 ; M-l Xset key \2354 \237 ; M-m Xset key \2353 \238 ; M-n Xset key \2328 \239 ; M-o Xset key \2329 \240 ; M-p Xset key \2320 \241 ; M-q Xset key \2323 \242 ; M-r Xset key \2335 \243 ; M-s Xset key \2324 \244 ; M-t Xset key \2326 \245 ; M-u Xset key \2351 \246 ; M-v Xset key \2321 \247 ; M-w Xset key \2349 \248 ; M-x Xset key \2325 \249 ; M-y Xset key \2348 \250 ; M-z X ; M-{ X ; M-| X ; M-} X ; M-~ X ; M-DEL END_OF_emacs.tak if test 3310 -ne `wc -c <emacs.tak`; then echo shar: \"emacs.tak\" unpacked with wrong size! fi # end of overwriting check fi echo shar: End of shell archive. exit 0 Julian Cowley, U. of Hawaii at Manoa julian@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu {uunet,ucbvax}!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!julian julian@uhccux.bitnet