No answer? Anyone have anything to say? It is a big change, and if nobody say anything then I will change it.
Regards, > Well, I am going to comment why I want to change the behaviour of > this key. When ascii was defined in 1968 communication with computers > were done using punched cards, or hardcopy terminals (basically a > typewritter machine connected with the computer using a serial > port). Due to this, ascii defines DELETE as 7F, because in the > puched cards, it means all the holes of the card punched, so it is > a kind of 'phisical delete'. In the same way, BACKSPACE key was a > non destructive back space, as in typewriter machines. So, if you > wanted to delete a character, you had to BACKSPACE and then DELETE. > Other use of BACKSPACE was accented characters, for example 'a > BACKSPACE `'. The VT100 had no BACKSPACE key, it was generated > using the CONTROL key as another control character (CONTROL key sets > to 0 b7 b6 b5, so it converts H (code 0x48) into BACKSPACE (code > 0x08)), but it had a DELETE key in a similar position where BACKSPACE > key is located today in common PC keyboards. All the terminal > emulators emulated correctly the difference between these keys, and > backspace key generated a BACKSPACE (^H) and delete key generated > a DELETE (^?). > > But the problem arised when Linus Torvald wrote Linux, and he did > that the virtual terminal (the terminal emulator integrated in the > kernel) returns a DELETE when backspace was pressed, due to the > fact of the key in that position in VT100 was a delete key. This > created a lot of problems (you can see it in [1] and [2]), and how > Linux became the king, a lot of terminal emulators today generate > a DELETE when backspace key is pressed in order to avoid problems > with linux. It causes that the only way of generating a BACKSPACE > in these systems is using CONTROL + H. I also think that emacs had > an important point here because CONTROL + H prefix is used in emacs > in some commands (help commands). > > >From point of view of the kernel, you can change the key for deleting > a previous character with stty erase. When you connect a real terminal > into a machine you describe the type of terminal, so getty configure > the correct value of stty erase for this terminal, but in the case of > terminal emulators you don't have any getty that can set the correct > value of stty erase, so you always get the default value. So it means > that in case of changing the value of the backspace keyboard, you have > to add a 'stty erase ^H' into your profile. Of course, other solution > can be that st itself modify the value of stty erase. > > I have usually the inverse problem, when I connect with non Unix machines, > and I have to press control + h to get a BACKSPACE, or the inverse, > when a user connects to my unix machines from a different system with > a correct backspace key. > > I would like listen the opinion of st users about this topic before > of doing this kind of modifications. > > > Regards, > > > [1] http://www.ibb.net/~anne/keyboard.html > [2] http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO-5.html > -- > Roberto E. Vargas Caballero -- Roberto E. Vargas Caballero
