Re: vterm and Meta?

[Thibaut Verron <thibaut.verron@gmail.com>]

On 01/08/2023 16:21, hw wrote:
>
>> If not, Meta is usually bound to a modifier key (afaik by default the
>> one immediately left of the space bar, e.g. alt on PC keyboards), and
>> that works in vterm.
> Uhm, I've been using emacs for over 30 years and in all these years,
> the ESC key was always used for a meta key across all instances by
> default.  It's the same when running emacs in a terminal, as an X11
> client or with wayland.

Yes, that is still the case. Alt is bound to Meta (as a modifier) on GUI 
clients, and so is Esc (as a prefix).

> The key left of the space bar has always been the Alt key on all PC
> keyboards I've used so far.  Pressing, for example, Alt-x, inserts x
> into the buffer (like into this buffer I'm writing this reply in, and
> into the vterm buffer).
>
> How is it that it's different for you?

I have no idea! It should be the default behavior, at least for GUI 
Emacs: Meta (the emacs modifier) is bound to Alt (the modifier key), and 
Alt is free to bind to another modifier. I would guess that either your 
keyboard has an unconventional mapping, or your Emacs has an 
unconventional setting.

How is it with emacs -q?

What key does C-h k Alt-x look up for you? M-x, A-x, or x?

Best wishes,

Thibaut

PS. I just tried it in a terminal and it also works there, I was not 
expecting it. But it might depend on the capabilities of your terminal 
emulator.