XTerm metaSendsEscape not working

XTerm metaSendsEscape not working

[Jesse Ziser]

Hello,

I find that adding the following:

  XTerm*vt100.metaSendsEscape: true
  XTerm*vt100.altSendsEscape: true
  XTerm*vt100.eightBitInput: false

to my .Xdefaults does not seem to change the way XTerm behaves WRT 
meta-key handling.  It still sends 0xF7 for meta-W, for example (or the 
UTF-8 equivalent, depending on how I set LANG in the environment).

I've also tried this:

  XTerm*metaSendsEscape: true
  XTerm*altSendsEscape: true
  XTerm*eightBitInput: false

to no avail.  However, adding lines like the following:

  Meta <Key>W: string(0x1b) string("w") \n

to my XTerm*translations does the trick (though I would have to add a 
line like this for every key on the keyboard).  The fact that this fixes 
it seems to be evidence that my problem really is at the XTerm level and 
not bash or readline or the X server or Windows key mappings or 
something like that.

I'm using Windows 7 64-bit.

Any ideas appreciated.  Thank you.

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Re: XTerm metaSendsEscape not working

[Thomas Dickey]

On Wed, 9 Nov 2011, Jesse Ziser wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I find that adding the following:
>
> XTerm*vt100.metaSendsEscape: true
> XTerm*vt100.altSendsEscape: true
> XTerm*vt100.eightBitInput: false
>
> to my .Xdefaults does not seem to change the way XTerm behaves WRT meta-key 
> handling.  It still sends 0xF7 for meta-W, for example (or the UTF-8 
> equivalent, depending on how I set LANG in the environment).
>
> I've also tried this:
>
> XTerm*metaSendsEscape: true
> XTerm*altSendsEscape: true
> XTerm*eightBitInput: false
>
> to no avail.  However, adding lines like the following:
>
> Meta <Key>W: string(0x1b) string("w") \n

well, there's more than one aspect to the problem.  xterm is looking for 
whatever is used for the modifier which corresponds to the meta key. But X 
doesn't have that as a standard modifier.  So xterm looks at the modifiers 
and determines which one it is.  It might be the same as an Alt-key, and 
it might not.  So there's altSendsEscape as a workaround for that case.

On the other hand, if there are translations using the key that xterm 
finds to be the "meta" key, then xterm refrains from using it as a 
modifier, unless (for example) the alwaysUseMods resource is set to true.

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

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Re: XTerm metaSendsEscape not working

[Jesse Ziser]

On 11/9/2011 8:09 PM, Thomas Dickey wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Nov 2011, Jesse Ziser wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I find that adding the following:
>>
>> XTerm*vt100.metaSendsEscape: true
>> XTerm*vt100.altSendsEscape: true
>> XTerm*vt100.eightBitInput: false
>>
>> to my .Xdefaults does not seem to change the way XTerm behaves WRT
>> meta-key handling. It still sends 0xF7 for meta-W, for example (or the
>> UTF-8 equivalent, depending on how I set LANG in the environment).
>>
>> I've also tried this:
>>
>> XTerm*metaSendsEscape: true
>> XTerm*altSendsEscape: true
>> XTerm*eightBitInput: false
>>
>> to no avail. However, adding lines like the following:
>>
>> Meta <Key>W: string(0x1b) string("w") \n
>
> well, there's more than one aspect to the problem. xterm is looking for
> whatever is used for the modifier which corresponds to the meta key. But
> X doesn't have that as a standard modifier. So xterm looks at the
> modifiers and determines which one it is. It might be the same as an
> Alt-key, and it might not. So there's altSendsEscape as a workaround for
> that case.
>
> On the other hand, if there are translations using the key that xterm
> finds to be the "meta" key, then xterm refrains from using it as a
> modifier, unless (for example) the alwaysUseMods resource is set to true.

OK, removing all translations involving Meta did indeed fix it, and so 
did setting alwaysUseMods to true.  So I guess it wasn't a 
Cygwin-specific issue then after all, just a manpage comprehension 
issue.  Thanks!

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