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From: mly@prep.AI.MIT.EDU
Newsgroups: net.emacs
Subject: Cursor keys
Message-ID: <186@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Feb-86 18:22:56 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.186
Posted: Fri Feb 14 18:22:56 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Feb-86 04:43:47 EST
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Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
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From: mly@prep.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Mlynarik)
You didn't say what emacs you are running, though from circumstantial
evidence I assume it is GNU Emacs of some unknown modernity.
(Use m-x emacs-version ito find out)

This is covered in the `Init Files' section of the GNU Emacs manual
(either printed or by way of `m-x info' in Emacs version 17)

The example given in that section is:

   * Make `C-x p' undefined.
     
          (global-unset-key "\C-xp")
     
     One reason to undefine a key is so that you can make it a prefix.
     Simply defining `C-x p ANYTHING' would make `C-x p'
     a prefix, provided it is not otherwise defined.
     
So to solve your problem:
    I'm fairly new to emacs and was wondering if anyone can tell me if there is a
    way to define the cursor keys on a DEC VT240 terminal to be next-line,
    previous-line, forward-char, & backward-char. The cursor keys send the
    characters ESC [ B,ESC [ A,ESC [ C,ESC [ D respectively. The only problem is
    that the first two characters are taken to be backward-paragraph (ESC [) and
    the rest is inserted into the text.

place the following forms in your ~/.emacs file:

(global-unset-key "\e[")
(global-set-key "\e[A" 'previous-line)
(global-set-key "\e[B" 'next-line)
(global-set-key "\e[C" forward-char)
(global-set-key "\e[D" 'backward-char)

I don't know how similar a vt240 is to a vt200 or a vt220 -- if they
are close, you might consider making a file emacs/lisp/term/vt240.el
which is linked to emacs/lisp/term/vt200.el -- that file contains a
number of key definitions which some people have found to their
liking.  Have a look around in that file to see what things are
defined and how they can be changed.