Re: Backspace direction reversion
Martin Buchholz writes:
>>>>> "SL" == SL Baur
<steve(a)xemacs.org> writes:
SL> My argument against is simple. The failure mode is catastrophic
SL> in exactly the same way that we wanted to fix when we first got
SL> into this. There are keyboards in the mule lab that XEmacs is
SL> completely clueless to deal with[1]. With them, the big key
SL> labeled "Delete" stops deleting backwards and in order to get a
SL> delete backwards requires a shifted keystroke.
What bugs me most about this argument is that Steve describes as
`catastrophic' a situation where a user would have to use a modifier
key (e.g. `Fn') to delete backwards, yet... a user who currently might
want to delete forwards currently must ALWAYS use a modifier key,
i.e. Ctrl+D. How exactly is this different?
The keys are used differently. Chars are deleted backward
typically as an integral part of entering text. You type "teh"
instead of "the", tap backspace a couple of times, fix it
and keep typing. Forward deletes typically occur when text is
being proofed and edited after being entered. This is a
different typing dynamic.
The number of keyboards where xemacs guesses wrong is very
small.
If this Happy Hacking keyboard is the only keyboard where we lose
on the DEL/BS issue, and this keyboard isn't in widespread use,
then I'm ready to declare victory. We have come a long way.
The question is, are we there yet? Are keyboards like this in
widespread use in Japan? And what is the source of the difficulty
exactly? Why doesn't the tty-erase-char rule produce the
correct behavior?