Re: Accessing remote Emacs from a Mac terminal emulator

[MBR]

Thanks a lot.

For anyone else who wants to try this, the complete path to the checkbox is:

       Terminal > Preferences > Settings > Keyboard > Use option as
       meta key

   Mark

On 3/20/14 5:49 PM, Jai Dayal wrote:
> Option is what you want, anyways, because Alt is obtained from 
> pressing Shift+Option, so that's why it didn't show up in your Google 
> searches :)
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 5:47 PM, Jai Dayal <dayalsoap@gmail.com 
> <mailto:dayalsoap@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     I use a mac. To enable the Alt key as meta, do the following:
>
>     In the terminal (your Terminal.app) go:
>     Preferences --> Keyboard, and then check the box for "Use option
>     as meta key".
>
>     Jai
>
>
>     On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 5:42 PM, MBR <mbr@arlsoft.com
>     <mailto:mbr@arlsoft.com>> wrote:
>
>         I need to log into a shell on a remote server and then invoke
>         Emacs from the command line.  Up until recently my local
>         machine was a Windows laptop.  I was running 'putty' locally.
>          Putty's front end is a terminal emulator,  and it speaks ssh
>         out its back end.
>
>         I recently switched to a Mac, so to accomplish the same task
>         I've been running the Mac terminal emulator
>         (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and at the local
>         command line I run:
>
>            ssh -p port username@domainname
>
>         After I log into the remote machine's shell, I start up Emacs,
>         just as I've been doing for ages.  Almost everything works
>         just as it used to, BUT when I need to type a keystroke with
>         the Meta modifier (i.e. use the ALT modifier key) the modifier
>         isn't recognized.
>
>         Although I can get the same effect by using the ESC key,
>         that's often a real pain.  For example, if I want to move
>         forward a word at a time, I'll usually type ALT+f, and then
>         release the "f" key and type it again several times without
>         ever releasing the ALT key.  To do the same thing with the ESC
>         key, I've got to press ESC, release ESC, press F, release F,
>         repeat until the cursor's where I want it.
>
>         Clearly putty sends something in the SSH protocol that lets
>         the remote Emacs know when the ALT key is pressed.  I don't
>         know if it's the Mac terminal emulator or the Mac
>         implementation of SSH that's failing to pass that information
>         along.
>
>         Does anyone here have any idea what I need to do to allow the
>         information about the state of the ALT modifier key to be
>         passed to the server where Emacs is running?
>
>            Mark R.