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From: ram-ashwin@YALE.ARPA (Ashwin Ram)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: If you REALLY don't like the arrangement of C-h and DEL in GNU...
Message-ID: <8706182000.AA06308@yale-eli.arpa>
Date: Thu, 18-Jun-87 16:00:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: yale-eli.8706182000.AA06308
Posted: Thu Jun 18 16:00:16 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Jun-87 14:27:33 EDT
Sender: pooh@eddie.MIT.EDU
Lines: 20

>    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.

And so low that GNU Emacs will happily tell you to type C-h to get more help.
The latter is a bug, not a feature, of ktt's.  I think C-h was an extremely
poor choice of help key (especially given that the BACKSPACE key on most
terminals emits exactly the same code as C-h, and therefore Emacs can't
distinguish between them).  At the very least there should be a variable such
as "help-char" to allow customization of this function at a useful level.

-- Ashwin Ram --

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