[gnu.emacs] Customization for AT386 - Problems with DEL

peter@orfeo.radig.de (Peter Radig) (01/14/90)

I try to customize GNU Emacs 18.55 for use with a AT386-console.
To give compatibility with some (DOS-) editors I intend to replace
the keybinding for DEL with `delete-char (instead if `backward-delete-
char-untabify which I binded to C-h).

I use the following directives:

  (global-unset-key "")
  (global-set-key "" 'backward-delete-char-untabify)
  (global-unset-key "\177")
  (global-set-key "\177" 'delete-char)

This works for C-h but not for DEL.  Why?

Thanks,
Peter
-- 
Peter Radig
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USENET: peter@radig.de  or:  uunet!unido!radig!peter

jgk@osc.COM (Joe Keane) (01/16/90)

I think the problem is that many modes redefine DEL.  I can see some reason
for doing this, but it's still pretty annoying.  If you really want to fix
this, you can use these statements:
	(define-key c-mode-map "\177" 'delete-char)
	(define-key emacs-lisp-mode-map "\177" 'delete-char)
Similarly for whatever other modes do this, although you should make sure
they're loaded first.

Note that you don't have to use unset-key before set-key.

It is a very good idea to make backspace not be the help key.  However, if you
do this you should have something be the help key.  I use C-\, because it's
not used for anything else and is fairly easy to type when necessary.  To make
things consistent, you should also do this:
	(setq help-char ?\C-\\)