Alt Vs. Esc

[Tim Johnson <tim@akwebsoft.com>]

I used emacs years ago, and I am now reacquainting myself with it.
I'm using version 24 on Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit on a Mac Mini with the
classic gnome and fluxbox desktops.

I also expect to be using emacs whilst secure shelling into the
machine above from a netbook using lubuntu/fluxbox.

This topic has - I'm sure - already been covered, so I would be
happy with URIs to discussions on the topic or paths to info/help.

If I run emacs from gnome-terminal where I have mapped alt-(1 - n) to
tab-(1 - n), then I still get digit-argument where I use Esc-(1 -
n). That's a good thing.....

I note also that emacs distinguishes between binding (as an example)
Alt-F9 and Esc-F9, that's all good too.

Can I expect these configurations to be portable?

Any other discussions related to this topic are of interest to me
also.  (See paragraph 3 above).

thanks
-- 
Tim 
tim at tee jay forty nine dot com or akwebsoft dot com
http://www.akwebsoft.com, http://www.tj49.com