Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!husc6!rice!sun-spots-request
From: auspex!guy@uunet.uu.net (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: Arrow keys and Type 4 keyboard
Keywords: Hardware
Message-ID: <4146@kalliope.rice.edu>
Date: 28 Jun 89 00:25:10 GMT
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Organization: Sun-Spots
Lines: 36
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 53, message 8 of 17

>Here's another gripe related to the new "Type-4" keyboard:

No, it's not.  The keyboard does *NOT* transmit escape sequences on the
serial port on its cable; it transmits "up/down" codes, which are 7 bits
of keystation number (completely unrelated to the character on the key),
and one bit of up/down indication.

Various pieces of software (the keyboard driver software when running on
the bare console or under SunView, and various bits of client and/or
server code when running under X11 or NeWS) translate those up/down codes
into event codes and characters, ultimately into the escape sequences
listed in the "termcap" entries.

There is a SunView preference item settable from "defaultsedit" that
specifies whether the translation table in the keyboard driver should be
set up to make the arrow keys act as arrow keys (i.e., give the ANSI
escape sequences for cursor motion, like <ESC>[A and so on) or function
keys (R8, R10, R12, R14 - which are the <ESC>[215z and the like).  It's
the "Arrow_keys" item in the "Input" category.

The problem you're having appears to be that somebody in Sun East Coast
Division decided to make the 386i SunOS version of "/etc/termcap"
different from the one on the rest of SunOS - SunOS on the West Coast
("big-endian") Sun-[234] machines has "ku" and company defined as arrow
keys, regardless of whether the machine has a Type 3 or Type 4 keyboard. 

What you want to do is:

	1) make sure the Arrow_keys entry says "set up the keys as arrow
	   keys and not Rn function keys";

	2) change the "termcap" and "terminfo" entries on the 386i to
	   match those on the big-endian Suns;

	3) send a message to the people in Sun ECD telling them to put
	   the 386i back the way the rest of the product line is.