Re: Emacs on OS X - configuration package

[Jussi Piitulainen <jpiitula@ling.helsinki.fi>]

videoxfer writes:
> Jussi Piitulainen wrote:
>> So if you type `C-h c opt-u' it both says something like "M-u runs
>> the command upcase-word" and waits for the next keypress?
> 
> If you type 'C-h c opt-u' it does nothing, since it's waiting for

I see it now. If you type it, that happens; if I type it, I get the
response "M-u runs ...". We have different keyboards. See below.

>> Then you may have option as meta and M-u as a prefix key. 
> 
> Afaik emacs knows nothing about prefix keys; that's a mac thing.  I
> don't think the standard emacs key processor even _sees_ the initial
> opt-u.

(I thought it would have been a prefix in the way that C-x and C-c
are, an Emacs thing. I understand now.)

>> You don't seem to get what you bargained for, if simply pressing
>> opt-u does not insert a character.
> 
> Do you run any form of macos?  Opt-u would never insert anything.
> It's a prefix character that adds umlaut to whatever you type next
> (if what you type next can take an umlaut).  Exactly the same thing
> happens in carbon emacs, so I get exactly what I'm paying for.

I run Mac OS X 10.3.2, Panther, and opt-u usually inserts u-umlaut. In
Carbon Emacs with opt as meta it upcases a word. I don't use it much
either, but I use M-c and M-l, and for me those are a similar case.

Finnish keyboards have ordinary keys for what you call a-umlaut and
o-umlaut, and for a-with-ring-above, and there is a separate prefix
key that serves as umlaut/dieresis, circumflex and tilde prefix, and
another prefix key that gives grave and acute accents. The latter two
behave like your opt-u. Our opt-u is not a prefix key.

Different hardware, different problems. That's why we had difficulty
understanding each other, but I hope it's clear now.