*BSD News Article 22237


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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
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From: bhiksha@tifrvax.tifr.res.in
Subject: RE: Repeat of XFree question
Message-ID: <12OCT93.04524383@tifrvax.tifr.res.in>
Sender: news@dxcern.cern.ch (USENET News System)
Organization: MIT PLASMA FUSION CENTER
References: <11OCT93.08302892@tifrvax.tifr.res.in> <CEqIuz.8EE@festival.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 04:52:43 GMT
Lines: 41

In a previous article, richard@castle.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) wrote:
>In article <11OCT93.08302892@tifrvax.tifr.res.in> bhiksha@tifrvax.tifr.res.in writes:
>>2) The `delete' and `erase' functions on the xterm are not tied.
>>  So, wheras ^H erases a character, it does not delete it and i get
>>  error messages such as `cleax^H^Har not found'
>>  ^? DELETES characters, but they remain visible on the screen and the
>>  cursor does not move back.
>>  They seem to swap roles depending on what i set an the erase character
>>  in my stty.
> 
>You can choose which of ^H and ^? you want to erase characters using
>"stty erase", but you already know that.  ^? has the advantage that
>emacs uses ^H for help.  ^H has the advantage that various motif and
>other X widgets expect it to be delete-previous-char, but you can
>get around that in your .xdefaults.  If you choose ^?, you can make
>the backspace key send it by putting this in your .xinitrc:
> 
>  xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete"
> 
>To make the characters actually be erased from the screen, you need
>to do "stty echoe".  Why this isn't the default I don't know.
> 

I have tried the keysym BackSpace=Delete  map.
My problem is not that i am unable to DELETE characters. It is that
characters that get deleted dont go off the screen: they stay there though
the machine does not recognize them or parse them.
e.g I type in "cleare" and delete one character and what is still see on
the screen is "cleare", with, perhaps, the cursor on the "e". However the
machine reads it as "clear" and clears the screen.
On the other hand, when i use the other function (i.e, if i have used ^H for
delete, then ^?) ERASES the characater from the screen without deleting it,
so i type "claer", delete three characters, see "cl" and add "ear" and the
machine responds: "claer^H^H^Hear not known"
I havent fiddled with the xterm termcap definitions (yet), so i want to
know what is wrong

regards
bhiksha
bhiksha@tifrvax.tifr.res.in