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From: jr@PIZZA.BBN.COM (John Robinson)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: theory of keymaps (GNU emacs)
Message-ID: <1449.586530657@pizza>
Date: 2 Aug 88 13:10:57 GMT
References: <62324@sun.uucp>
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Reply-To: jr@bbn.com
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The following from the info node:

 File: emacs  Node: Keymaps, Prev: Key Bindings, Up: Key Bindings, Next: Rebinding

explains the crux of what you are after.  See the node for a more
complete description (^H i m emacs m key<SPC>bindings m keymaps).

   A mode can also put a prefix definition of a global prefix character such
 as `C-x' into its local map.  This is how major modes override the
 definitions of certain keys that start with `C-x'.  This case is special,
 because the local definition does not entirely replace the global one.
 When both the global and local definitions of a key are other keymaps, the
 next character is looked up in both keymaps, with the local definition
 overriding the global one as usual.  So, the character after the `C-x' is
 looked up in both the major mode's own keymap for redefined `C-x' commands
 and in `ctl-x-map'.  If the major mode's own keymap for `C-x' commands
 contains `nil', the definition from the global keymap for `C-x' commands is
 used.

/jr
jr@bbn.com or bbn!jr