Subject: Re: About to put a sledgehammer through my keyboard
To: None <port-i386@netbsd.org>
From: Christos Zoulas <christos@zoulas.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 12/24/2004 18:22:09
In article <Pine.NEB.4.61.0412240712370.19259@Stench.no.domain>,
Roger Ivie <rivie@ridgenet.net> wrote:
>Greetings!
>
>I'm having a very annoying problem with xterm. But first, a little
>background.
>
>I do a lot of work with DEC VMS machines, so when I telnet into them, I
>want the backspace key to act as delete. However, if I use xmodmap to
>permanently map it that way, this screws up lots of local X apps. Firefox,
>for example, deletes to the right instead of the left, which is VERY
>annoying. Consequently, I decided to use *deleteIsDEL in my .Xdefaults
>instead.
>
>The problem with this is that xterm keeps switching randomly between
>using ^H and DEL for the backspace key. After using DEL for a while,
>it'll spontaneously switch to using ^H for a while. And then, just when
>I've been perfectly happy with "stty erase ^H", it'll suddenly switch
>back and I'll have to "stty erase ^?" to be happy again.
>
>I don't know exactly what causes it, but it seems to be related to
>either using the scroll bar and/or running an application that puts the
>terminal in raw mode.
>
>Questions:
>
>- Does anyone know what causes xterm to change its mind about the
>   backspace key and what I can do about it?
>
>- Failing that, does anyone know how to reliably convince xterm and
>   telnet sessions through it that the backspace key is delete WITHOUT
>   screwing up every other X app's view of the keyboard?
>
>I'm using NETBSD 1.6.2_STABLE.

Add a line like this to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources:

xterm*ttyModes: susp ^Z dsusp ^Y intr ^C quit ^\\ kill ^U eof ^D eol ^@ swtch ^@ erase ^?

christos