> Bernd Finger wrote: > > Exactly. I would like be able to use the backspace key for erasing one > > character left of the current cursor position without having to execute > > stty erase <bs> before. > > Why don't you use a KEYBD trap to map the backspace key to the delete key? > I don't know why you need a change in the shell to customize > the use of the edit modes. > > Code changes should only be required when new functionality is desired.
I hate the backspace key as much as the next guy, but this is certainly not a new problem. Another solution (and I am by no means an expert) is to perform a key mapping with either your hardware device driver (I have this in place as we speak), or with your X-windows system (I've done this also), or with your X-term-like terminal emulator (and I've done this also again). There are a number of ways to map a key to something (some would say: too many), but making the shell do something like that as a fixed builtin feature doesn't seem to be the best place to handle user customization like this. I am anxious to get an officially ported (meaning: OpenSolaris) AST-KSH-93 to the Solaris platform (with KSH command builtins eventually replacing the corresponding existing Solaris commands), but I am not so eager to see various feature enhancements to KSH be done quickly (in the space of less than a year's worth of thinking or so) just because we are finally starting to get excited about the use of KSH on Solaris. I've been excited about KSH since like 1983, so I would rather see progress be made in the area of replacing Solaris program commands with KSH builtins. I'd also like to see the Solaris /usr/bin/sh and /sbin/sh replaced with AST-KSH-93. Also, how about replacing the Solaris /usr/bin/ksh with AST-KSH-93 (if you get my drift)? There is even /usr/dt/bin/dtksh that could suffer being updated someday! There seems to be plenty of work to do before we try to quckly rush in some totally new features. *returning to lurk mode* :-) Dave Morano morano at computer.org
