Re: Binding meta and arrow

["Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: "Ian Crowther" <i_crowther@hotmail.com>
> Bcc: 
> Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 00:27:27 +0100
> 
> I can evaluate "(global-set-key [left] "left was pressed")" and get "left 
> was pressed" inserted into the buffer when I press left. All I now need to 
> do is try to figure out how to use the alt key on my keyboard.
> I've tried the following:
> 	(global-set-key [M-left] "M-left was pressed")
> 	(global-set-key [A-left] "A-left was pressed")
> 	(global-set-key [alt left] "alt left was pressed")
> 	(global-set-key [meta left] "meta left was pressed")
> 
> And because I don't know what they do, I tried the following combinations 
> also:
> 	(global-set-key [H-left] "H-left was pressed")
> 	(global-set-key [s-left] "s-left was pressed")
> 
> 
> None of them work. I know emacs can tell I've pressed M-left though. I'd be 
> grateful if somebody could tell me how I'm going wrong trying to bind it.

Just use a name of a function instead of the string.  For example:

     (global-set-key [M-left] 'beginning-of-line)

(The way you used global-set-key is meant for macros: the thing inside
quotes should be a sequence of one or more keys, it cannot be an
arbitrary string, and it certainly isn't displayed in the echo area,
it's fed back to the Emacs keyboard input.)