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Why all the Alt bindings by default?
From: |
Drew Adams |
Subject: |
Why all the Alt bindings by default? |
Date: |
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:50:34 -0700 |
emacs -Q in Emacs 24, visit an Emacs-Lisp buffer, `C-h b'.
Do the same in Emacs 23.3.
In Emacs 24 (but not in 23.3) I see lots of Alt bindings that presumably (?)
insert characters:
A-SPC
A-! ¡
A-" Prefix Command
A-$ ¤
A-' Prefix Command
A-* Prefix Command
A-+ ±
A-, Prefix Command
A--
A-. ·
A-/ Prefix Command
A-1 Prefix Command
A-3 Prefix Command
A-< «
A-= ¯
A-> »
A-? ¿
A-C ©
A-L £
A-P ¶
A-R ®
A-S §
A-Y ¥
...
Actually, I don't know what these keys do. The fancy characters are shown in
the `binding' column. What does it mean for a key to be bound to a character
(as opposed to command `self-insert-command')?
I don't even know how to hit such keys to see what `C-h k' says. By default,
Alt is Meta, at least on most platforms. I tried `(describe-key (kbd "A-/"))'
etc., but that just says "A-/ is undefined".
What's this all about?
Searching for `Alt', or `A-', or even `Unicode' turns up nothing in NEWS.
Also, (emacs) Modifier Keys says this explicitly:
"Emacs supports three other modifier keys. These are called
<Super>, <Hyper> and <Alt>. Few terminals provide ways to use these
modifiers; the key labeled <Alt> on most keyboards usually issues the
<Meta> modifier, not <Alt>. The standard key bindings in Emacs do not
include any characters with these modifiers. However, you can
customize Emacs to assign meanings to them. The modifier bits are
labelled as `s-', `H-' and `A-' respectively."
Apparently it is no longer true that "The standard key bindings...do not include
any characters with these modifiers." (?)
- Why all the Alt bindings by default?,
Drew Adams <=
- Re: Why all the Alt bindings by default?, Andreas Schwab, 2011/10/26
- RE: Why all the Alt bindings by default?, Drew Adams, 2011/10/26
- Re: Why all the Alt bindings by default?, Andreas Schwab, 2011/10/26
- RE: Why all the Alt bindings by default?, Drew Adams, 2011/10/26
- Re: Why all the Alt bindings by default?, Tim Cross, 2011/10/26
- Re: Why all the Alt bindings by default?, Stephen J. Turnbull, 2011/10/26
- Re: Why all the Alt bindings by default?, Tim Cross, 2011/10/26
- Re: Why all the Alt bindings by default?, Eli Zaretskii, 2011/10/27
- Re: Why all the Alt bindings by default?, Tim Cross, 2011/10/27
- Re: Why all the Alt bindings by default?, Stephen J. Turnbull, 2011/10/27