On Sun, Aug 02, 2026 at 01:29:29PM -0300, Jim wrote:
> On Sun, Aug  2, 2026 at 05:13 (-0400), Thomas Dickey wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, Aug 01, 2026 at 09:53:37PM -0300, Jim via Mutt-dev wrote:
> >> On Sat, Aug  1, 2026 at 21:47 (-0300), Jim wrote:
> 
> >>> On Sat, Aug  1, 2026 at 18:34 (-0400), Kurt Hackenberg wrote:
> 
> >>>> On Sat, Aug 01, 2026 at 18:05 -0300, Jim via Mutt-dev wrote:
> 
> >>>>>> Moreover, Jim also said that the Delete key of
> >>>>>> his keyboard sends ^H (instead of the usual escape sequence).
> 
> >>>>> Or so says my shell when I type Ctrl-V <delete key>.
> 
> >>>> That's with X and a terminal emulator?
> 
> >>> Yes.  Specifically, urxvt.  Same in xterm.
> 
> >>>> That is peculiar. I would look into why that ^H happens.  Something
> >>>> strange in X keyboard input, I guess.  Do you configure that keyboard
> >>>> input in any way, maybe through xmodmap?
> 
> >>> No.  A few messages ago (I didn't realize my ideas about "delete" meaning
> >>> "delete backwards" were going to take on a life of their own) I mentioned
> >>> that back in 2004 I used to swap backspace and delete with xmodmap, but
> >>> since then I haven't had to do it.  I may have known at the time what
> >>> changed, but if I did, that memory is long gone.
> 
> >>>> What does xev say about the Delete key?
> 
> >>> It says
> 
> >>> KeyPress event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x5200001,
> >>> root 0x6ab, subw 0x0, time 607437571, (105,127), root:(286,252),
> >>> state 0x0, keycode 119 (keysym 0xffff, Delete), same_screen YES,
> >>> XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (7f) ""
> >>> XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (7f) ""
> >>> XFilterEvent returns: False
> 
> >>> which makes a certain amount of sense (to me, anyway): the "delete" key
> >>> sends the "Delete" keysym and XLookupString turns that into the ASCII DEL
> >>> character.
> 
> 
> >>> Bonus information:
> 
> >>> My termlib entry says  kdch1=\E[3~.
> 
> >>> Interestingly (or not) with xfce4-terminal, at my shell prompt,
> >>> Ctrl-V <delete>
> >>> outputs <Esc>[3~, and kdch1 is the same \E[3~ there.
> 
> >> "Mystery" (partially?) solved.  I see that (presumably since 2004 or so) I
> >> have X resources for xterm
> >> XTerm*backspacekey:        \177
> >> XTerm*deletekey:   \010
> 
> > those aren't recognized by xterm (see manpage)
> 
> Looking in my X resources file, I see
> 
> XTerm.vt100.translations: #override \
>                 <Key>BackSpace: string(\177) \n\
>                 <Key>Delete: string(\010)
> 
> (which I didn't notice when I quickly looked).
> 
> Some people might wonder about the ones I mentioned above; the comment
> in my file is revealing:
> 
> ! Ironically, this works in rxvt and aterm, but not xterm!
> XTerm*backspacekey: \177
> XTerm*deletekey: \010
> 
> The "mystery" is possible more solved now.

yes... rxvt developers did that in the 1990s, claiming (incorrectly) that
there was considerable overlap.  There sort-of was, but in that overlap
there were differences which led to lots of bug reports.

In a quick check, rxvt-unicode removed that in March 2004
(Lehmann's first commit was in November 2003)

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <[email protected]>
https://invisible-island.net

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Reply via email to