Re: backspace-delete problem

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Tom <mailaccount200001 yahoo com> writes:
> 
> I just installed Red Hat 7.2 with gnome, and don't
> understand the gnome terminal settings options.
> 
> Using the console, everything works correctly
> (backspace sends backspace and delete sends delete).
> 
> But in the gnome terminal, both backspace and delete
> send backspace (^H) whether I have the "Delete
> generates DEL/^H" option selected or not.
> 
> Can anyone help me solve this problem? 

It interacts with the "swap backspace/delete" option somehow. If you
try all four possible combinations you might get what you want...  I
have "Swap delete/backspace" checked and "delete generates del/^h"
unchecked, and I get DEL for backspace and ^[[3~ for delete.  This is
the Right Thing as documented at
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-opersys.html#s10.8 which is
sort of the de facto Linux standard anyhow.

I started a flamewar about the dumbness of these options and the UI
for them at the time they were added. ;-) A possible UI improvement
might be:

     
 -- Terminal workarounds -----------------                     
 |                         ESC [3~
 |  Backspace key sends:  [ASCII DEL]
 |                         ^H                          
 |                         ASCII DEL
 |  Delete key sends:     [ESC [3~  ]
 |                         ^H                          

Much more clear what the options do given that UI... 

Havoc