[ On Mon, April  8, 1996 at 21:50:24 (+0200), Alan Barrett wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: port-i386/2264: extremely annoying choice of key map for standard PC keyboard BACKSPACE key
>
> > What does emacs have to do with the codes a keyboard should generate for
> > a standardly labeled key?
> 
> The key in that position on a VT100 sends DEL.  That's standard enough for
> me.

I don't know what kind of VT100 you have, but the key is explicity
labeled "BACK SPACE" on all VT101, VT102, VT131, and decwriter III
keyboards that I've ever seen and owned from Digital, and indeed always
generates an ASCII BS (0x08) code [except on a vt131 in edit mode].  I
realize there's a "DELETE" key nearby on those same keyboards, but
there's also a "DELETE" key nearby on all the modern PC keyboards.

Perhaps you're thinking of the ill-placed "BREAK" key?

> The key in that position on most PC keyboards that I have encountered 
> don't say "backspace"; they are labeled with a kind of arrow.  So sending
> DEL still seems right.

Indeed it's not always (often?) labeled "backspace", but it has always
generated an ASCII BS (0x08) code under every other OS I've ever even
heard of running on a PC.  I think MS-Kermit is the only piece of
significant communications software which has usually re-mapped this key
(though I feign ignorance to most commercial PC communications tools,
and long ago developed an ms-kermit INI file to fix this particular
oddity).

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 443-1734			VE3TCP			robohack!woods
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>