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@@ -98,3 +98,61 @@ If you want to compile st for OpenBSD you have to remove -lrt from config.mk, an
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st will compile without any loss of functionality, because all the functions are
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included in libc on this platform.
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+## Backspace key does not work
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+
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+This is an issue that was discussed in suckless mailing list
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+<http://lists.suckless.org/dev/1404/20697.html>:
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+
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+ Well, I am going to comment why I want to change the behaviour
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+ of this key. When ascii was defined in 1968 communication
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+ with computers were done using punched cards, or hardcopy
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+ terminals (basically a typewritter machine connected with
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+ the computer using a serial port). Due to this, ascii defines
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+ DELETE as 7F, because in the puched cards, it means all the
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+ holes of the card punched, so it is a kind of 'phisical
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+ delete'. In the same way, BACKSPACE key was a non destructive
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+ back space, as in typewriter machines. So, if you wanted
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+ to delete a character, you had to BACKSPACE and then DELETE.
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+ Other use of BACKSPACE was accented characters, for example
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+ 'a BACKSPACE `'. The VT100 had no BACKSPACE key, it was
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+ generated using the CONTROL key as another control character
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+ (CONTROL key sets to 0 b7 b6 b5, so it converts H (code
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+ 0x48) into BACKSPACE (code 0x08)), but it had a DELETE key
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+ in a similar position where BACKSPACE key is located today
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+ in common PC keyboards. All the terminal emulators emulated
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+ correctly the difference between these keys, and backspace
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+ key generated a BACKSPACE (^H) and delete key generated a
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+ DELETE (^?).
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+
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+ But the problem arised when Linus Torvald wrote Linux, and
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+ he did that the virtual terminal (the terminal emulator
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+ integrated in the kernel) returns a DELETE when backspace
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+ was pressed, due to the fact of the key in that position
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+ in VT100 was a delete key. This created a lot of problems
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+ (you can see it in [1] and [2]), and how Linux became the
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+ king, a lot of terminal emulators today generate a DELETE
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+ when backspace key is pressed in order to avoid problems
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+ with linux. It causes that the only way of generating a
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+ BACKSPACE in these systems is using CONTROL + H. I also
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+ think that emacs had an important point here because CONTROL
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+ + H prefix is used in emacs in some commands (help commands).
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+
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+ From point of view of the kernel, you can change the key
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+ for deleting a previous character with stty erase. When you
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+ connect a real terminal into a machine you describe the
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+ type of terminal, so getty configure the correct value of
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+ stty erase for this terminal, but in the case of terminal
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+ emulators you don't have any getty that can set the correct
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+ value of stty erase, so you always get the default value.
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+ So it means that in case of changing the value of the
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+ backspace keyboard, you have to add a 'stty erase ^H' into
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+ your profile. Of course, other solution can be that st
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+ itself modify the value of stty erase. I have usually the
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+ inverse problem, when I connect with non Unix machines, and
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+ I have to press control + h to get a BACKSPACE, or the
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+ inverse, when a user connects to my unix machines from a
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+ different system with a correct backspace key.
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+
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+ [1] http://www.ibb.net/~anne/keyboard.html
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+ [2] http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO-5.html
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+
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