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From: Karl.Kleinpaste@cbstr1.att.com
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: If you REALLY don't like the arrangement of C-h and DEL in GNU...
Message-ID: <247@cbstr1.att.com>
Date: Thu, 28-May-87 16:14:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbstr1.247
Posted: Thu May 28 16:14:15 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Jun-87 10:48:52 EDT
Sender: karl@cbstr1.att.com
Lines: 57
Keywords: keyboard-translate-table
Summary: Here's how to interchange them.
Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.44.1 of Mon May 18 1987 on cbstr1 (usg-unix-v)


I have been asked this question 4 times in the last 2 weeks.

Many people are used to typing C-h as a delete-backward-char (aka,
"stty erase") and tend to use DEL as a SIGINT key.  SysV users in
particular have this tendency.  Fine.  Except GNU Emacs has a really
serious prejudice toward C-h as the Help character, and DEL as
delete-backward-char.

Ecumenical differences abound.  Religious wars begin.

Yes, one could ask that SysV users (and all who have the tendency to
use C-h for stty erase and DEL as SIGINT) to convert to using DEL and
C-c, respectively.  I converted just so, about 2 years ago.  But
that's really just another religious war.

Many people seem not to be aware of a very valuable variable inside
GNU Emacs called the keyboard-translate-table.  When you type any char
at GNU Emacs, GNU Emacs takes its ASCII value as index into this
string, takes the char found there, and substitutes as though you'd
typed that instead.

This variable's existence allows the use of:

(setq keyboard-translate-table "\000\001\002\003\004\005\006\007
\177\011\012\013\014\015\016\017\020\021\022\023\024\025\026\027
\030\031\032\033\034\035\036\037 !\042#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<
=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\134]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy
z{|}~\010")

which you can put in your .emacs file.  This has the effect of
interchanging all uses of C-h and DEL after the execution of the setq.
(Note that the string should all be on one line; I broke it into
pieces to prevent mailer/rnews stupidity.)  Note that the position
where \010 ought to be has \177 in it, and conversely.

This translation happens at a very low level inside GNU Emacs.  It is
so low that, when you type C-h after executing the setq, GNU Emacs
will *think* you've typed DEL.  When you type DEL, GNU Emacs will
think you typed C-h.  Hit 2 DELs and you'll get the minibuffer help
menu.  Hit a 3rd DEL and you'll get the full-buffer help menu.  Ask
GNU Emacs to describe-key-briefly on C-h, and it'll tell you that DEL
runs the command delete-backward-char.  You get the idea.

So you can avoid all the ecumenical and religious problems associated
with The Right Way To Set Up Your Terminal with simple, judicious use
of the keyboard-translate-table.  (I know a person who uses k-t-t to
interchange the use of C-g and C-u - icktooey - dangerous magic.)
This works far better than a mess of global-set-key commands because
it can't be fubar'd by some major mode coming along and screwing
around with your keymaps.  k-t-t conversion happens before keymap
interpretations.

Try it out and see if it prevents an argument with your officemate
about The Proper Use of DEL.

Enjoy,
Karl