Re: M-<function-key> vs. ESC <function-key>

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>>>>> Yes, I do, because that's what Emacs is receiving when I press
>>>>> Meta-left, for example.  More specifically, when I type
>>>>> Meta-left at Emacs running in xterm it receives the key sequence
>>>>> [?\e ?\e ?O ?D], which gets translated to [?\e left] through
>>>>> function-key-map.
>>>>> 
>>>>> That is a surprise to me.  Someone must have changed this in recent
>>>>> years.
>>> 
>>>> He did not say what his input terminal is.  It may not be X.
>>> 
>>> He said it's an xterm.
>
>> Which is not X.  So Emacs never gets to see Meta.
>
> Please re-read: he presses M-left, which xterm turns into [?\e ?\e
> ?O ?D] and which function-key-map transforms to [?\e left] and the
> lookup with [?\e left] fails to find the M-left binding to
> backward-word.
>
> In contrast, M-C-f is turned by xterm into [?\e ?\C-f] which
> function-key-map leaves alone and the lookup for [?\e ?\C-f]
> successfully finds the M-C-f binding to forward-sexp.

I should work on my attention span.  I even quoted the relevant
passage.  And contributed complete nonsense.  As a kind of excuse, I
have had net access only in the mniddle of the night in the last few
days, and my niece (where I have been visiting) tended to wake me up
at 8am, so the time for sleeping has been in short supply.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum