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From: jack@hpindda.HP.COM (Jack Repenning)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: gnumacs bindings
Message-ID: <3590005@hpindda.HP.COM>
Date: Tue, 15-Sep-87 12:50:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: hpindda.3590005
Posted: Tue Sep 15 12:50:26 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Sep-87 02:39:17 EDT
References: <3720007@hpsemc.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 31

> This is my impression of how rms would likely justify these
> bindings.

Well, yes, that's pretty likely what he was thinking.  The problem
faced by anyone using an HP keyboard (aren't many other keyboards like
this, too?) is that the BACKSPACE key is big, friendly, easy to hit,
and used by every other program commonly run to mean (what in emacs we
call) backward-delete-character.

I do NOT use emacs as my log-in shell; I do spend a great deal of my
time typing to other programs who (let the driver) expect this meaning
for BACKSPACE, I even frequently borrow other folks' terminals, or
extend mine to others, from this same culture.  We have an
overwhelming conditioning in favor of 

	       BACKSPACE == backward-delete-character,

and don't want to restrap our fingers every time we enter an Emacs
window.

If this tremendous cultural river against which Emacs swims is a local
phenomenon, then I'm fairly happy with monkeying with the keyboard
translate table.  It just seemed a little odd that anyone would want
to swim against that current in the first place.

Well, maybe not.  RMS seems to be an excellent and fearless swimmer,
especially against the current :-)

For which I must admit I'm on the whole quite grateful!

Jack Repenning