I should have figured that there was more to this
issue. Please correct my following statements if they
are incorrect.

I come from a Windows background where you pressed
"backspace" to always carry out the function
"delete-left", and you pressed the "delete" to carry
out the function "delete-right". I have been using
Linux for the last 2 1/2 years. In every Linux distro
I have installed and used, the keyboard behaviors have
been exactly the same as my Window's experiences. So
my entire computer background including my days of
using Amigas is exactly the same.

From what I understand from the responses to my
question, NetBSD has set up their keyboard to function
in console to behave like a terminal keyboard attached
to Unix machines. On those keyboards you had no
"backspace" but instead had a "delete" key in that
location that carried out the function of
"delete-left". You had no way to "delete-right" on
those old terminals. So NetBSD operates like a
traditional Unix terminal offering no key or anyway to
configure in the console a key to carry out the
"delete-right" function. I'm guessing that if you want
to "delete-right" you need to use vi/vim in command
mode and use the "x" key.

If this is the case, I personally feel that for new
users it would be helpful to add a note in the NetBSD
guide explaining the rational for why those keys
function differently in NetBSD than in Windows, Linux,
or why even a FreeBSD suggested change to the inputrc
file will not change the behavior in NetBSD. I would
imagine that other users who have come not from a Unix
terminal background, but from a Windows and Linux
background find this behavior strange and wonder about
the reason.

I have not tried the bash "alias" suggestion that was
posted, so I'm not sure if that does what I'm
interested in doing, but that solution really is not a
configuration solution, but a work around if it does
work.

I appreciate the links and the explaination about Unix
terminal keyboards and Sun keyboards. I never realized
so much history went into the decisions to design the
NetBSD console to function in the way that it does.
Thank you for the posts.

Steve
mowestusa@yahoo.com


--- Greg Troxel <gdt@ir.bbn.com> wrote:

>   [delete and backspace]
> 
> 
> This post describes how to make NetBSD with a PC
> keyboard behave how I
> think it ought to behave (which is like a VT52...):
> 
>  
>
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-users/2005/03/31/0011.html
> 


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