bug#12535: 24.2.50; [PATCH] `edmacro-parse-keys' is incorrect for M-<TAB>

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> > If so, that's incorrect - the bug is still present.
> 
> Btw, I'm not sure I agree with the proposed fix: <TAB> and TAB are
> different keys.

Yes, but then why wouldn't we also consider <ESC> and
ESC to be different keys?

`kbd' and `edmacro-parse-keys' treat them both the same.

Likewise, all the others in the same clause:

"\\<\\(NUL\\|RET\\|LFD\\|ESC\\|SPC\\|DEL\\)$"

Why, for all of those, does Emacs consider <WORD> and
WORD to be the same key, where WORD is any of those
ASCII control-char names (NUL, RET, LFD, ESC, SPC, DEL),
but it doesn't consider <TAB> and TAB to be the same key.

IOW, isn't your saying that they are different keys just
another way of saying what `edmacro-parse-keys' does
currently?  Isn't it just proclaiming that there's no
bug because what is, is right?

It's quite possible I'm missing something, in which case
please let me know what.  So far, I don't know of a good
explanation, and I haven't found one in the doc or code
comments.

I understand why we treat <tab> differently from TAB.
I don't understand why we treat <TAB> differently from
TAB.

Why is TAB not handled like NUL, RET, etc.?  They're
all ASCII control chars.  (They aren't like the case of
F9, <F9>, and <f9>.)

Thanks for thinking about this, and perhaps finding a
good explanation/rationalization.