Re: Emacs Manual: G.5 Keyboard Usage on MS-Windows

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Jan Djärv wrote:
> Richard Stallman skrev:
> >     ** Most important:
> >        - Alt-Tab, Alt-Shift-Tab
> >        - Ctrl-Esc, Ctrl-Shift-Esc
> >        - Ctrl-Alt-Delete
> >        - Ctrl-Tab, Ctrl-Shift-Tab
> >        - Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V, Ctrl-Z
> >        - Ctrl-A
> >        - Alt-Space
> >        - Esc
> >        - Tab, Shift-Tab
> >
> > That is really disastrous.  I am surprised anyone can find Emacs useful
> > on Windows if it interferes with such important keys.
> >
> > Anyway, Windows users can suggest some recommendation to make.
>
> Isn't it so that these keys are passed down to Emacs?  I used Emacs on W32,
> and Ctrl-C was not captured.  Neither was Ctrl-X, Ctrl-Z, Tab, Esc.
>
> We are not talking about keys which are commonly used for other things, but
> keys which are captured on a higher level and never reaches Emacs at all.
> This is the case for Alt-Tab for example.


Yes, you are right. My list seems to have given a wrong impression. What 
I wanted to say was that all these clashes are worth mentioning. They 
are defined in the guidelines for w32 to do other things than they 
normally do in Emacs.

And yes, Alt-Tab is captured before Emacs sees it also on w32.

Just as disturbing IMO is that Alt is a very central key in the w32 GUI 
for reaching the menus. It really sits in your fingers. A much better 
choice for Meta on w32 is IMNSHO the L/R Windows keys.

Ctrl-C etc works excellent with Kim's cua-mode.

Ctrl-A should probably not have been on that part of my list and the 
same is true for Ctrl-Tab.

I have never even thought about what Ctrl-Esc does in Emacs. Hope it 
does not do anything I want to use.

I do by no means object to Emacs use of Tab. It is quite convinient but 
worth mentioning.

That Esc does not run some form of quit is probably surprising to most 
new Emacs users on w32.