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From: gildea@expo.lcs.mit.EDU (Stephen Gildea)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Why is bash-1.07 setup by default for 7 bit ?
Message-ID: <9105171504.AA10140@alex.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: 17 May 91 15:04:40 GMT
References: <MIKE-W.91May17093552@cs17.cs.aukuni.ac.nz>
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: X Consortium, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
Lines: 23


        I was rather hasty in posting this to gnu.bash.bug ... the problem was
      with xterm itself (having recently moved to a R4 xterm). 
    
      * In the R4 xterm translation table, the event "Meta<KeyPress>" is bound
        to `insert-eight-bit'.  However, "Meta" in this context means "Meta_L
        or Meta_R" rather than "a mod1 modifier".
    
      * The "Meta" key on my keyboard actually sends the "Alt_L" keysym by
        default, so although it was registered as a "mod1" modifier, and
        treated as Meta by other Xclients (eg. emacs, R3 xterm) R4 xterm did
        not grok it as a Meta key. 

In R4, a new X Consortium standard, the ICCCM, defined how Mod<n> keys
were to be interpreted: clients must look at the keysyms of the keys
on the list to deduce how that list is to be interpreted.  R4 xterm
correctly obeys these conventions.  Emacs 18 does not.

If there's any problem here, it is, "why do keyboard manufacturers put
Alt keys on their keyboards, when Meta keys are so much more useful?"

 < Stephen
   MIT X Consortium