>Number:         2264
>Category:       port-i386
>Synopsis:       extremely annoying choice of key map for standard PC keyboard BACKSPACE key
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    gnats-admin (GNATS administrator)
>State:          open
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Mar 26 10:50:04 1996
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Greg A. Woods
>Organization:
Planix, Inc.; Toronto, Ontario; Canada
>Release:        NetBSD-1.1B Fri Mar 22 07:24:52 EST 1996
>Environment:

System: NetBSD box1_s 1.1B NetBSD 1.1B (HMPG_S) #1: Mon Mar 25 17:51:51 EST 1996     woods@box1_s:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/HMPG_S i386

>Description:

	The "recent" change of the default pccons keyboard map, w.r.t.
	the behaviour of the BACKSPACE key goes against all expectations
	of how a PC keyboard should behave, and what the key label
	"BACKSPACE" would be expected to generate.

	I realize this is an East Coast / West Coast issue, and there's
	a great deal of historical baggage attached to this change, but
	I would like to put it on the record that I am not happy with
	the "new" state of affairs.

	Note that the current mapping to '^?' will greatly confuse many
	folks who use communications packages and expect a "Backspace"
	key to generate an ASCII ``BS'' character.

>How-To-Repeat:

	First, start a normal shell and ensure that no command-line
	editing features of the shell are enabled:

		unset ENV
		exec /bin/sh
		set +o vi emacs

	Second, ensure the termios settings are "normal"

		stty sane

	Now, type '<Ctrl-V><Backspace>' and observe that '^?' is echoed
	when one would plainly expect an ASCII 'bs' character (i.e.
	'^H') to be echoed.

	Alternately telnet to a host that forces you to use the ASCII
	'bs' character to delete the previous character and try to get
	by without using using the key sequence '<Ctrl-H>'.

>Fix:

	Apply the following patch, relative to /usr/src

*** sys/arch/i386/isa/pccons.c-ORIG	Mon Mar 25 20:08:32 1996
--- sys/arch/i386/isa/pccons.c	Mon Mar 25 20:17:12 1996
***************
*** 1294,1300 ****
  	ASCII,	"0",		")",		")",		/* 11 0 */
  	ASCII,	"-",		"_",		"\037",		/* 12 - */
  	ASCII,	"=",		"+",		"+",		/* 13 = */
! 	ASCII,	"\177",		"\177",		"\010",		/* 14 backspace */
  	ASCII,	"\t",		"\177\t",	"\t",		/* 15 tab */
  	ASCII,	"q",		"Q",		"\021",		/* 16 q */
  	ASCII,	"w",		"W",		"\027",		/* 17 w */
--- 1294,1300 ----
  	ASCII,	"0",		")",		")",		/* 11 0 */
  	ASCII,	"-",		"_",		"\037",		/* 12 - */
  	ASCII,	"=",		"+",		"+",		/* 13 = */
! 	ASCII,	"\010",		"\010",		"\177",		/* 14 backspace */
  	ASCII,	"\t",		"\177\t",	"\t",		/* 15 tab */
  	ASCII,	"q",		"Q",		"\021",		/* 16 q */
  	ASCII,	"w",		"W",		"\027",		/* 17 w */
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: