In message <m11HEkr-000g7OC@most.weird.com> Greg A. Woods writes:

>Actually I'm not complaining about change, but rather about incorrect
>defaults.
>
>The label on the key is the only correct default for the key, regardless
>of what you or I or anyone else might be most accustomed to using a key
>in that position for.  

Feeling dogmatic today, are we?

>If it says "backspace" on the key and it's an
>essentially ASCII keyboard then it should *normally* generate a 0x08
>character code; and if it says "delete" then it should *normally*
>generate a 0x7f character code.

That may be what you think but that doesn't make it a fact.  If the
key is the large one on the upper-right, used to erase the
next-leftward character, and there's no adjacent equal-sized key
labelled delete, then the standard DEC and Unix convention is to
generate 0x7F -- even if (due to PC-industry stupidity) the key is
labelled backspace rather than delete.  Which is a *very* sensible
default; just ask any Emacs user.

That *is* a reality, and the defaults match it.

BTW, in your world, what char-code should be generated by a key
labelled with a graphic '<X|' (delete-leftward icon) instead of
an explicit 'backspace' or 'delete'? Hm?


>Everyone can change the defaults if they wish (hopefully), but the only
>thing that can result from defaults that do not match reality are
>endless FAQs and confusion, as we have clearly seen.

Match *whose* reality, though?  Yours, or mine and Ted's? :->.