Re: [Mutt] #2952: <BackSpace> should use terminal settings

[Kyle Wheeler <kyle-mutt-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday, September 13 at 04:04 PM, quoth Mutt:
> On 2007-09-13 08:53:59 -0500, Kyle Wheeler wrote:
> > And what of keyboards without a key named "backspace"?
>
> The key can't be used, so that its configuration doesn't matter.

The configuration of the BackSpace key *does* matter because it is not 
simply ignored for keyboards that do not have keys named "backspace". 
On the contrary, mutt will still insist that a <BackSpace> key exists, 
and is signified by ^H. Thus, when another key is pressed that happens 
to emit ^H, mutt presumes that the BackSpace key was pressed. In other 
words, mutt recognizes the backspace key by what it *does* rather than 
by how it is *named*. Any key that emits the appropriate byte sequence 
is assumed to be the backspace key, regardless of what that key 
*actually* is.

> But in general, one finds a key on the keyboard and use it as
> backspace.

Precisely. This key then becomes "the backspace key" by virtue of its 
function rather than any other detail about the key.

~Kyle
--
The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person 
who argues with him.
                                               -- Stanislaw Jerszy Lec

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