Re: 8-bit input as meta key for emacs -nw

[Stefan Monnier]

> When logged into a remote machine, I run emacs inside an xterm window
> using "emacs -nw".  Starting with emacs 21, I'm having trouble getting
> 8-bit data to be interpreted as a meta key; instead of M-d I get an
> a-umlaut.  I have access to 4 Linux machines which behave differently:
>      Machine 1 (RH 9; emacs 21.2):
>       LANG=en_US.UTF8 produces accented characters;
>       LANG=en_US gives meta key.
>      Machine 2 (RH 9; emacs 21.2): Always gives meta key.
>      Machine 3 (Debian 3; emacs 21.2): Always gives meta key.
>      Machine 4 (SuSE 9; emacs 21.3): Never gives meta key.
> So far as I can tell, the environments on all 4 machines are the same,
> but I don't understand all the new (to me) locale and mule support.

Could you also indicate what kind of Emacs build it is (i.e. if it's the
Emacs provided by SuSe or RedHat or if it's the official Emacs straight
from the horse's mouth: packagers tend to screw things up in subtle ways
like that).

> Can someone tell me a reliable way to force emacs to interpret 8-bit
> characters the old way, that is, as though the meta key were held down?

(set-keyboard-coding-system nil)


        Stefan