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From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.terminals
Subject: Re: ESC key on VT200 and VT300 terminals.
Message-ID: <15967@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 24 Apr 91 19:59:13 GMT
References: <DAVIS.91Apr17212532@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu> <15892@smoke.brl.mil> <1991Apr23.054148.3339@bilver.uucp>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 11

In article <1991Apr23.054148.3339@bilver.uucp> bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion) writes:
>Why do you say that it is not that way by definition.  I understood the
>"definition" is that the Control key is just to strips the 3 most significant
>bits, therefore control [ will always give ESC.

No, there is no such definition for the function of the "control" modifier
key on a keyboard.  While virtually all ASCII terminal keyboards apply the
control key as you describe for the ALPHABETIC characters, there is
considerable variation in the control+special_character mappings use to
produce other ASCII codes, such as NUL, DEL, FS, GS, and perhaps ESC.
Some terminals function as you described and others map these differently.