linux-kernel - Re: UTF-8 and Alt key in the console

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Date:	Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:55:00 -0700
From:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
To:	"John T." <j.thomast@...oo.com>
CC:	Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@...putergmbh.de>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: UTF-8 and Alt key in the console

John T. wrote:
> 
> OK, let's see if I can answer this.
> 
> Vi has 32 years of ESC key use tradition which doesn't play
> well with "meta sends ESC".
> 
> Even though "meta sets 8th bit" is "broken" in your point-of-view,
> that didn't stop it from being used all these years. The fact
> that it maps into real characters is not a problem if you can just
> use a CTRL-V equivalent in bash or vim.
> 
> Furthermore, it is an _option_. No one is obliged to use it.
> So it's a question of:
> 
> .. _forcing_ the end of "meta sets 8th bit"
> .. leaving things the way they are, and have them keep working,
>  as xterm did.
> 
> So guess we should fix xterm too?
> 
> I think you're exagerating.
> 

Hardly.  vim clearly can deal with the ESC-is-prefix issue anyway, since 
otherwise it wouldn't be able to use arrow keys.

That being said, quite frankly, *both* Meta key conventions are 
incredibly broken.

What I would much prefer is to see would be a brand new convention where 
different keys (Ctrl, Meta, Super, Hyper, Alt or even in some cases 
Shift) issues a unique prefix which doesn't conflict with anything else. 
  Emacs has tried to promote such a convention of the format
<CAN> @ <bucky> <keystroke> which is a lot better, although it's a bit 
Emacs-centric (using <CAN> / ^X as the initial character is not really a 
very good choice.)

The best probably would be to introduce an escape code, along the lines 
of other escape codes in the terminal interfae.

	-hpa
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