Re: Rebinding international characters

[Luc Teirlinck]

I may in yesterday's messages have a little bit overstated the
simplifications that would result from having a `function-key-map'
that would be consistent with its documented goals, but the fact
remains that it seems that most of the problems, including the fact
that regular keybindings "must" override `function-key-map', stem from
abuse of `function-key-map' for purposes it was not intended for.

Docstring:

Keymap mapping ASCII function key sequences onto their preferred
forms.  This allows Emacs to recognize function keys sent from ASCII
terminals at any point in a key sequence.

Elisp manual:

 -- Variable: function-key-map
     This variable holds a keymap that describes the character
     sequences sent by function keys on an ordinary character
     terminal.

Clearly, the above means that `function-key-map' only should be
non-nil on character terminals.  On window systems, there should be no
problem, it is nil.  This is not the case.  Even on window systems,
`function-key-map' is huge.  It contains plenty of bindings of the
(kp-home . [home]) type, which have nothing whatsoever to do with the
documented purpose of `function-key-map'.

I still believe that these should be in a different keymap, which
should be treated differently, although now may not be the right time
to get into that.

If not, further documentation changes are needed, because the current
documentation clearly suggests that `function-key-map' is strictly a
text-only terminal issue.

Sincerely,

Luc.