Re: Some developement questions

[hw]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

>> From: hw <address@hidden>
>> Cc: address@hidden,  address@hidden,  address@hidden,  address@hidden
>> Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2018 13:59:48 +0200
>> 
>> Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:
>> 
>> So how are Emacs` key bindings for cursor movement more efficient than
>> the cursor keys, given that the Alt key does not work?
>
> The Alt key does work, you probably have your keyboard misconfigured.

I found out less than a week ago that it now finally works.  It did not
work for the first 25 years or so, beginning on an Atari ST.

Technically, it may have started working earlier and I didn't know
because hadn't tried it for a long time because it hasn't been working
for decades.

I don't know why it works now; chances to find out are low.

My keyboard is probably not misconfigured.  Everything works as
intended.  I've had keyboards misconfigured, it usually shows when you
can not switch from X to a console, and I fixed that when it happend.  I
have a couple keyboards here, and each requires its own specific
configuration.

I think someone fixed a bug some time, somewhere, and it works since
then.

>> Eli pointed out that window managers like to use the Alt key for
>> themselves so that it never arrives at Emacs.
>
> Not Alt itself, some combinations that begin with Alt.  Like Alt-TAB,
> for example.  There are very few such combinations, and Emacs avoids
> binding important functions to them.  So I think explaining that in
> the tutorial would not be TRT, as the issue is quite obscure.

I don't know, isn't that hard to say?  If a WM (or something else) were
to use Alt+v for something, it might not work, or work intermittently,
in Emacs.  If this possibility was mentioned in the tutorial, users
could at least check.  A small paragraph about it in the tutorial hurts
less than having the Alt key not working for 25 years.

In the case I've had a problem with it, it would still sometimes work
and sometimes not, apparently depending on whether the WM or the
program came first in reading input.