I know next to nothing about this stuff as well.
It *is* annoying though to have a completely inconsistent keyboard
interface.
In Windows/DOS, 'Backspace' removes the character to the left of the
cursor, and 'Delete' removes the character under the cursor.
In Linux, both can be either configured or not and generally do
different things depending on where you are (Console prompt, console
program, xterm, rxvt etc...). There are separate keyboard maps for the
console and for X. In the console, 'backspace' might work, but then you
use the pager 'less' and suddenly it doesn't work anymore (like when you
use it to correct a mistake in typing a search string). When you're
logging in and you mistype a character in your password you can't be
sure that either backspace or delete is going to back you out of the
mistake, or just add a few ^H's to your response.
In a curses program, the cursor keys might work in the console, but not
in an xterm. Then again, every xterm variant is different...
You start up a shell in an emacs window and then try to run vi in that
shell (no flames about running vi under emacs, please :) but it wont
start because it doesn't understand the 'emacs' terminal type.
Don't even get me started about Alt/Meta keys etc... it's times like
that you say crazy things like 'thank Bill for the windows keys'...
Why keyboard configuration is not being handled only in the kernel and
nowhere else is beyond me. Perhaps someone can explain the historical
reasons behind it. Historical reasons aside though, is there any reason
why Linux shouldn't buck the trend and be consistent?
Matthew
Jeff Waugh wrote:
>
> Disclaimer: Please don't flame the newbie.
>
> With recent discussions about termcaps, etc. I started thinking about the
> relative obscurity of all these configuration details...
>
> Why do they still exist? How *practically* useful are they anymore?
>
> Is it a case of backwards/cross compatibility, and that no one has the urge
> or flameproof suit strong enough to come up with new specifications?
>
> Obviously, this is a question coming from someone used to "New" *nix,
> primarily as a desktop machine or standalone server, and the simplicity that
> comes from using the average distro (Slackware excluded, yes).
>
> I'm not debating the use of plain text files for configuration, merely the
> gumpf that's grown over certain areas, and shows little sign of being cut
> back.
>
> Thoughts? Discussion?
>
> - Jeff
>
> -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------- http://www.slug.org.au/ --
>
> linux.conf.au - coming to Sydney in January 2001
>
> Installing Linux Around Australia - http://linux.org.au/installfest/
>
> --
> SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
> More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
--
SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
