Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!amdcad!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!enea!pvab!robert
From: robert@pvab.UUCP (Robert Claeson)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: missing DEL key
Keywords: keybinding, DEL key
Message-ID: <309@pvab.UUCP>
Date: 28 Aug 88 18:40:57 GMT
References: <8079@condor.UUCP>
Organization: Statskonsult Programvaruhuset AB, Sweden
Lines: 16

In article <8079@condor.UUCP>, dms@condor.UUCP (Daniel M. Solis) writes:

>      I'm using Gnu emacs on a VT-220 terminal, which has no DEL key.
> (I.e., VT-220s have no DEL key; it's not that my particular terminal
> is missing the key.)

VT220's has a DEL key (the <X key above the Return key), but no BS key.
This conforms to the ISO standard, which specifies the DEL key as a
destructive backspace, and BS as a non-destructive backspace. Therefore,
the VT220 terminals are using the right control character to erase the
last entered character.

But UNIX has since ancient times been using the BS character for this
purpose, and the DEL key as an "interrupt" character, so many VT220
clones has the ability to change the character the DEL key sends via
a set-up option.