[comp.sys.mac.comm] problem with aixterm and MacX

paulonis@kodak.com (Mike Paulonis) (06/28/91)

I use MacX v1.0.1 to access an IBM RS/6000 (AIX v3.1) using aixterm.  I cannot
get aixterm to accept the delete(backspace) key for erasing characters on the
command line.  All I get is an echo of ^[[P. Grrrrr. I would expect 'stty erase
^?' to enable the delete key. If I use 'stty erase ^h', I can delete just fine
with ^h, but I would rather just hit the delete key. I expect this is a problem
with aixterm rather than MacX, but I don't know for sure.  Can anyone solve my
*simple* problem?  Please post a followup or email to paulonis@kodak.com. 
Thanks.  

resnick@cogsci.uiuc.edu (Pete Resnick) (06/28/91)

paulonis@kodak.com (Mike Paulonis) writes:

>I use MacX v1.0.1 to access an IBM RS/6000 (AIX v3.1) using aixterm.  I cannot
>get aixterm to accept the delete(backspace) key for erasing characters on the
>command line.  All I get is an echo of ^[[P. Grrrrr. I would expect 'stty erase
>^?' to enable the delete key. If I use 'stty erase ^h', I can delete just fine
>with ^h, but I would rather just hit the delete key. I expect this is a problem
>with aixterm rather than MacX, but I don't know for sure.  Can anyone solve my
>*simple* problem?  Please post a followup or email to paulonis@kodak.com. 
>Thanks.  

I wasn't real fond of the fact that you can't re-map your delete key to
backspace, since AIX machines are relatively dumb on this score, but there
is a fix. I assume this works with the RS6000, though I did it on an RT.
You want to do two things:

1) Make sure you are using aixterm -v for vt102 mode.
2) Make sure that the keymap for vt102's is made. On the RT, this means
using the keycomp command on the keymap.vt file and putting the result
into the /usr/lpp/X11/defaults/vt directory. Your XDIR environment
variable must point there.

Ugh.

pr
--
Pete Resnick             (...so what is a mojo, and why would one be rising?)
Graduate assistant - Philosophy Department, Gregory Hall, UIUC
System manager - Cognitive Science Group, Beckman Institute, UIUC
Internet/ARPAnet/EDUnet  : resnick@cogsci.uiuc.edu
BITNET (if no other way) : FREE0285@UIUCVMD

chris@cogsci.uiuc.edu (Chris Gressley) (06/29/91)

resnick@cogsci.uiuc.edu (Pete Resnick) writes:

>paulonis@kodak.com (Mike Paulonis) writes:

>>I use MacX v1.0.1 to access an IBM RS/6000 (AIX v3.1) using aixterm.  I cannot
>>get aixterm to accept the delete(backspace) key for erasing characters on the
>>command line.  All I get is an echo of ^[[P. Grrrrr. 


>1) Make sure you are using aixterm -v for vt102 mode.
>2) Make sure that the keymap for vt102's is made. On the RT, this means
>using the keycomp command on the keymap.vt file and putting the result
>into the /usr/lpp/X11/defaults/vt directory. Your XDIR environment
>variable must point there.


An easier solution that worked for me was placing the following line in
my .Xdefaults file on the RS/6000:

		aixterm.Translations: <Key>Delete:string(0xff08)

where the hex string 0xff08 is the definition of the backspace key
found in /usr/include/X11/keysymdefs.h.

Chris