Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!gr.utah.edu!mecklen
From: mecklen%gr.utah.edu@wasatch.utah.edu (Robert Mecklenburg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Want a "meta" key for Gnu emacs on 4D's
Message-ID: <1721@wasatch.utah.edu>
Date: 3 May 89 16:21:44 GMT
Sender: news@wasatch.utah.edu
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 37

We run Gnu emacs on personal irises and a 4D/140GT.  The editor works well
(although we haven't bothered to compile in job control), but lacks a meta key.
Here's what we've found:

    a.  The keyboard is equipped with a conveniently located "ALT" key, but it
	doesn't just set the eighth bit, it redefines the entire key sequence
	(as documented in "4Sight User's Guide" page GA-5).  Furthermore, the
	eighth bit is zero on the down event and one on the up event.

    b.  Gnu emacs has features to use ANSI style function keys, however this
	does not include any support of the "ALT" key in particular.

    c.  The file "/usr/include/gl/ansicode.h" in conjunction with the "4Sight
	User's Guide" page GA-3 suggests that wsh might have meta key
	translation:

	    /usr/include/gl/ansicode.h:
		#define SGIMKEN 99 /* meta key enable/disable */
		
	But all reasonable control sequences I've tried using this flag/number
	have no effect.

    d.  The NeWs server might be induced to perform meta key translation (as
	suggested by "/usr/NeWs/lib/NeWs/bindkey.ps"), however, to be useful
	you would want to rebind every key on the keyboard (116 of them) and
	the shifted and controled versions as well.  That's a *big* translation
	table.

    e.  Finally, it is certainly possible to extend Gnu with a "smart" get
	character function which could perform the necessary translation, but
	this is even more painful than (d) (but probably more robust and
	faster).

So the question is: Is there any way to get a "real" meta key?

Thanks
Robert Mecklenburg