Subject: Re: Using the delete key to "right-delete" chars
To: None <port-i386@NetBSD.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-i386
Date: 09/30/2003 20:39:33
> One feature that I like on some X apps (xdm, mozilla...), is the way
> they use the "Delete" key (above the directional pad) : it deletes
> the char that is on the right of the cursor position.

> But I can't reproduce it on my NetBSD 1.6.1 system, and using the
> "Delete" key just produces a '~' char on a term.

The key is probably being taken as a function key of some sort.  Check
with xmodmap -pk or something along the lines of the old xev; it
probably is not mapped to the Delete keysym.

As for doing a delete-rightwards operation, that depends on what you're
typing to.  Most editors, even the single-line editors line-editing
shells use, have the operation, but it varies how difficult it would be
to set things up so that key invokes it.

> [...] that most of the time people use their "Delete" key as a "Back
> Space" key ("left-deleting").

Well, the use of 0x08 for delete-leftwards is a bit ugly; it seems to
me it really should be _move_-leftwards.  But that use, whether misuse
or not, seems about as entrenched and (un)likely to change as the
default use of 0x7f for delete-leftwards.  If whatever you're typing to
has an even semi-decent key rebinding facility, it's probably just a
matter of telling it to remap 0x7f (and possibly 0x08, and whatever
else).

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