Re: Accessing remote Emacs from a Mac terminal emulator

[Jai Dayal <dayalsoap@gmail.com>]

Option is what you want, anyways, because Alt is obtained from pressing
Shift+Option, so that's why it didn't show up in your Google searches :)


On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 5:47 PM, Jai Dayal <dayalsoap@gmail.com> wrote:

> I use a mac. To enable the Alt key as meta, do the following:
>
> In the terminal (your Terminal.app) go:
> Preferences --> Keyboard, and then check the box for "Use option as meta
> key".
>
> Jai
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 5:42 PM, MBR <mbr@arlsoft.com> wrote:
>
>> I need to log into a shell on a remote server and then invoke Emacs from
>> the command line.  Up until recently my local machine was a Windows laptop.
>>  I was running 'putty' locally.  Putty's front end is a terminal emulator,
>>  and it speaks ssh out its back end.
>>
>> I recently switched to a Mac, so to accomplish the same task I've been
>> running the Mac terminal emulator (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
>> and at the local command line I run:
>>
>>    ssh -p port username@domainname
>>
>> After I log into the remote machine's shell, I start up Emacs, just as
>> I've been doing for ages.  Almost everything works just as it used to, BUT
>> when I need to type a keystroke with the Meta modifier (i.e. use the ALT
>> modifier key) the modifier isn't recognized.
>>
>> Although I can get the same effect by using the ESC key, that's often a
>> real pain.  For example, if I want to move forward a word at a time, I'll
>> usually type ALT+f, and then release the "f" key and type it again several
>> times without ever releasing the ALT key.  To do the same thing with the
>> ESC key, I've got to press ESC, release ESC, press F, release F, repeat
>> until the cursor's where I want it.
>>
>> Clearly putty sends something in the SSH protocol that lets the remote
>> Emacs know when the ALT key is pressed.  I don't know if it's the Mac
>> terminal emulator or the Mac implementation of SSH that's failing to pass
>> that information along.
>>
>> Does anyone here have any idea what I need to do to allow the information
>> about the state of the ALT modifier key to be passed to the server where
>> Emacs is running?
>>
>>    Mark R.
>>
>>
>>
>