Is something wrong with `kbd'?

Is something wrong with `kbd'?

[Deniz Dogan]

One user in #emacs on Freenode just stumbled across something that
looks like a bug to me.

(global-set-key (kbd "C-TAB") 'mode-line-other-buffer)

Using that and then hitting C-TAB gives me "<C-tab> is undefined".
From the documentation for `edmacro-mode':

 * The special words RET, SPC, TAB, DEL, LFD, ESC, and NUL represent
  special control characters.  The words must be written in uppercase.

 * One or more prefixes M- (meta), C- (control), S- (shift), A- (alt), ...

What's going on here?

(kbd "C-TAB") returns [67108873], whatever that's supposed to be.
(kbd "<C-tab>") returns [C-tab].

--
Deniz Dogan

Re: Is something wrong with `kbd'?

[Davis Herring]

> (kbd "C-TAB") returns [67108873], whatever that's supposed to be.

TAB is (the number) C-i, which can't have Control re-applied in the usual
sense, so it gets the 0x4000000 bit set (that's 0x4000009).

> (kbd "<C-tab>") returns [C-tab].

`function-key-map' and friends don't have a translation for this symbol,
perhaps because it's not something you can type on a terminal.  So you
can't bind it as a character, only as a symbol.

Davis

-- 
This product is sold by volume, not by mass.  If it appears too dense or
too sparse, it is because mass-energy conversion has occurred during
shipping.