miller2@flora.mmwb.ucsf.edu (Susan miller2%Cohen) (04/12/90)
Can someone tell me how to customize the EMACS editor for use with a Silicon Graphics IRIS workstation? I would like to be able to use the function keys at the top and the arrow keys particularly, but also other keys on the keyboard which have no printed value. At the moment I'm getting an error message about the key codes I'm using (down arrow for instance is ^[[A if one can believe the quoted-insert response but this code gives problems in fact). Susan Miller
jlange@oracle.com (J Lange) (04/13/90)
Although I don't know anything about the IRIS workstation or its terminal emulation features, I may be able to help. You have determined that down arrow sends ^[[A which is the same as ESC [ A. This is a normal ANSI escape sequence, but ESC [ is the default binding for an emacs command (backward-paragraph), so it must be disabled first. This is done with the command: (global-unset-key "\e[") [in your .emacs file] Then you can bind any keys that begin with ESC [ (most function keys) to other functions. This is easy to do interactively using M-x global-set-key RET. This is also a good way to determine what sequence a key sends and if it can be assigned a function. For example, before doing the global-unset-key command above, using global-set-key with the down arrow would produce results like this: you -> M-x global-set-key RET emacs-> Set key globally: you -> (press down arrow) emacs-> Set key ESC [ to command: A After the global-unset-key the last line would read: Set key ESC [ A to command: To which you would then enter 'next-line'. Emacs provides a nice generic way of mapping common function keys that is described in the file keypad.el (usually in /usr/local/emacs/lisp). I hope this helps. Jim Lange jlange@oracle.com uunet!oracle!jlange (I'm new to usenet and don't have a fancy signature yet)