davidh@dent.Berkeley.EDU (David S. Harrison) (02/26/89)
When I recently upgraded to DEC UWS 2.0 from X11R3, I noticed that meta-key bindings in the Xaw text widget no longer worked (e.g. when I typed Meta-i, an `i' was inserted into the buffer). After some exploratory debugging, I realized that the Xt Intrinsics concept of Meta is not always portable. The following quote from X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language Interface (Release 3) explains For example, ``m'' or ``Meta'' means any modifier bit mapping to a keycode whose keysym list contains XK_Meta_L or XK_Meta_R. Unfortunately, in the default mapping provided by the UWS 2.0 server, only one keysym is defined for the ``compose character'' key: Alt_L. Since this is neither XK_Meta_L or XK_Meta_R, Xt translation tables do not consider this to be ``Meta''. Fortunately, xmodmap comes to the rescue. If you are running UWS 2.0, the following command fixes the problem: xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xb1 = Alt_L Meta_L' More importantly, should this be considered a bug in the UWS 2.0 server or is it within the rights of the server implentor to define whatever mapping they feel is appropriate? David Harrison UC Berkeley Electronics Research Lab (davidh@ic.Berkeley.EDU, ...!ucbvax!ucbcad!davidh)
swick@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ralph R Swick) (03/01/89)
> When I recently upgraded to DEC UWS 2.0 from X11R3, I noticed > that meta-key bindings in the Xaw text widget no longer worked ... > Unfortunately, in the default mapping provided by the UWS 2.0 > server, only one keysym is defined for the ``compose character'' > key: Alt_L. ... > is it within the rights of the server implentor to define whatever > mapping they feel is appropriate? Actually, the server should try as best it can to produce a default mapping that matches the printed legends on the keyboard. The rest of the environment provided to the user should include a reasonable user-interface to allow modification and/or customization of the mapping. xmodmap is currently the only such interface in common existance. Ideally this interface would also preserve the user's preferences across sessions. In the case you describe, unless you actually have an LK201 keyboard with a key labelled 'Meta', the server is not strictly permitted to include the keysym in the default mapping. The server(s) shipped in X11R3 do include Meta as a hack, in deference to all of our friends who have stuck with us all these years.
rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler) (03/02/89)
More importantly, should this be considered a bug in the UWS 2.0 server
or is it within the rights of the server implentor to define whatever
mapping they feel is appropriate?
It should not be considered a bug, but it might be considered a misfeature,
depending on your personal preferences.