Re: use of the Delete key on Dec keyboard or similar

[Richard Stallman]

Okay, now if I understand all this correctly, keyboards (and computers)
did not have a delete-to-the-right key or keycode. Indeed,
www.asciitable.com shows ascii 8 as Backspace and ascii 127 as DEL. If
DEL is interpreted as delete-to-the-left, then we have two codes that
mean the same, and no code for delete-to-the-right, correct?

More or less.  More precisely, we have two codes which were used
differently in two different traditions:

The old tradition:
Delete for delete-to-the-left, and no key for delete-to-the-right.

PC: Backspace for delete-to-the-left, and Delete for delete-to-the-right.

Given these conflicting traditions, there are two approaches
that could be reasonable in theory:

* Tell everyone "you must remap Delete as Backspace if you have a
keyboard whose big key is Delete."  At some point this might be the
best thing to do, but it is somewhat arrogant to tell a lot of users
"You must remap your keyboards to use our software", and unless
they have come to regard it as justified, they are likely
to get quite angry.

* Make applications handle both Backspace and Delete as
delete-to-the-left, and use some other gesture for
delete-to-the-right.  This way, we can give the users a simple uniform
recommendation that works reasonably well on all keyboards.

It is reasonable for a program to offer an option to use the PC
meanings--in other words, to make Delete delete to the right.  Emacs
has such an option.  Maybe GTK should have such an option too.

Now where did that C-d come from?

C-d is the Emacs key binding for delete-to-the-right.  This was not an
inevitable choice; some other key binding could have been chosen.  But
this one has the advantage that "d" is mnemonic for "delete".

I don't see why
Emacs would be a better "standard" to model program behaviour after than
the "standard" PC way of doing things.

Emacs is an important part of the GNU system, and other GNU programs
(notably BASH) provide compatible key bindings.  Even many non-GNU
programs support Emacs key bindings.  So it is very useful for any GNU
program to provide Emacs-compatible bindings, if they fit in the
program.


It sounds like this is really a GTK issue, not specifically a GIMP
issue, so I should raise the issue with the GTK developers.  Thanks.

Re: use of the Delete key on Dec keyboard or similar

[Richard Stallman]

  I still do the majority of my work on
Linux in terminal windows.

It loooks like you're referring to the GNU/Linux operating system,
rather than the Linux kernel; if so, would you please write
"GNU/Linux"?

The GNU Project needs to get credit for the developing the GNU system,
since this helps us do more of everything we try to do (including the
Gimp).  So it is a GNU convention that we should call the system
GNU/Linux, the combination of GNU and Linux.  That gives us a share of
the credit, while still giving Linus Torvalds a share as well.

See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html for more explanation.

Re: use of the Delete key on Dec keyboard or similar

[Richard Stallman]

Thanks for sending the report.

Gimp developers, I asked Olivier to report this because it is a
serious (though superficial) problem.  Since the Gimp only runs under
a window system, it should be able to handle both Backspace and Delete
in the same way (as delete-backwards), since both of them can be
distinguished from the ASCII characters C-h and DEL.