Alt key unavailable in GTK

Alt key unavailable in GTK

[Milan Zamazal]

When the current Emacs CVS snapshot is built using GTK and I press the
Alt key, it behaves exactly the same way as if the Meta key was actually
pressed.  I couldn't find a way to distinguish between the two keys nor
could find any information about the problem in documentation.  When the
same snapshot is compiled with Athena, the Meta and Alt keys work fine,
as expected.

So I think it is a bug.

Re: Alt key unavailable in GTK

[Karl Chen]

It might be the GTK library is using some GTK setting.  What does
'xmodmap -p' show and what does 'xev' show when you press alt/
meta?


>>>>> "Milan" == Milan Zamazal <pdm@zamazal.org> writes:
    Milan> 
    Milan> When the current Emacs CVS snapshot is built using GTK
    Milan> and I press the Alt key, it behaves exactly the same
    Milan> way as if the Meta key was actually pressed.  I
    Milan> couldn't find a way to distinguish between the two keys
    Milan> nor could find any information about the problem in
    Milan> documentation.  When the same snapshot is compiled with
    Milan> Athena, the Meta and Alt keys work fine, as expected.
    Milan> 
    Milan> So I think it is a bug.
    Milan> 
-- 
Karl 2004-05-20 02:50

Re: Alt key unavailable in GTK

[Milan Zamazal]

>>>>> "KC" == Karl Chen <quarl@nospam.quarl.org> writes:

    KC> It might be the GTK library is using some GTK setting.  

Maybe, but Emacs/GTK is the only GTK application on my system in which I
observe the problem.  For instance Mozilla and gnome-terminal
distinguish the Meta and Alt keys.

    KC> What does 'xmodmap -p' show 

  % xmodmap -p
  xmodmap:  up to 2 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

  shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
  lock      
  control     Control_L (0x42)
  mod1        Alt_L (0x73),  Alt_R (0x74)
  mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d),  Super_L (0x75)
  mod3        Hyper_L (0x25),  Hyper_R (0x6d)
  mod4        Meta_L (0x40),  Meta_R (0x71)
  mod5        ISO_Level3_Shift (0x4e)

    KC> and what does 'xev' show when you press alt/ meta?

What I expect: Meta_L for Meta and Alt_L for Alt.  Don't forget,
Emacs/Athena works well.

Regards,

Milan Zamazal

-- 
Free software is about freedom, not about free beer.  If you care only about
the latter, you'll end up with no freedom and no free beer.

Re: Alt key unavailable in GTK

[Jan D.]

>     KC> It might be the GTK library is using some GTK setting.
>
> Maybe, but Emacs/GTK is the only GTK application on my system in which 
> I
> observe the problem.  For instance Mozilla and gnome-terminal
> distinguish the Meta and Alt keys.

Mozilla is not a GTK application in that sense.  And how do you test 
this?
Neither Mozilla or gnome-terminal does something with Alt or Meta by 
default.
Are you running Gnome?  I suspect some GTK/Gnome setting because my
Emacs can distinguish Alt and Meta, but Gnome applications can not,
they see Meta as Alt (i.e. the reverse of what you have).

> What I expect: Meta_L for Meta and Alt_L for Alt.  Don't forget,
> Emacs/Athena works well.

And you are running with emacs -q --no-site-file?

	Jan D.

Re: Alt key unavailable in GTK

[Milan Zamazal]

>>>>> "JD" == Jan D <jan.h.d@swipnet.se> writes:

    JD> Mozilla is not a GTK application in that sense.  And how do you
    JD> test this?  Neither Mozilla or gnome-terminal does something
    JD> with Alt or Meta by default.  

They do -- Alt is used to access menus or some commands.

But you pointed me to the right direction.  The problem was in running
Emacs from a gnome-terminal, when I have the Alt/Meta keys swapped.
Sometimes, Emacs got the modifiers of the swapped keyboard before it was
disabled by the window manager.  And since Emacs never forgets key
modifier settings, both Meta and Alt modifier was assigned to the keys
as a result.  Sigh.

I am sorry.

Regards,

Milan Zamazal

-- 
"Having GNU Emacs is like having a dragon's cave of treasures."
                                                Robert J. Chassell