Re: [PATCH] Change <delete> to delete forward in the editor menu.

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On Sun, Aug 02, 2026 at 01:29:29PM -0300, Jim wrote:
> On Sun, Aug  2, 2026 at 05:13 (-0400), Thomas Dickey wrote:
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> > On Sat, Aug 01, 2026 at 09:53:37PM -0300, Jim via Mutt-dev wrote:
> >> On Sat, Aug  1, 2026 at 21:47 (-0300), Jim wrote:
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> >>> On Sat, Aug  1, 2026 at 18:34 (-0400), Kurt Hackenberg wrote:
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> >>>> On Sat, Aug 01, 2026 at 18:05 -0300, Jim via Mutt-dev wrote:
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> >>>>>> Moreover, Jim also said that the Delete key of
> >>>>>> his keyboard sends ^H (instead of the usual escape sequence).
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> >>>>> Or so says my shell when I type Ctrl-V <delete key>.
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> >>>> That's with X and a terminal emulator?
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> >>> Yes.  Specifically, urxvt.  Same in xterm.
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> >>>> That is peculiar. I would look into why that ^H happens.  Something
> >>>> strange in X keyboard input, I guess.  Do you configure that keyboard
> >>>> input in any way, maybe through xmodmap?
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> >>> No.  A few messages ago (I didn't realize my ideas about "delete" mea=
ning
> >>> "delete backwards" were going to take on a life of their own) I menti=
oned
> >>> that back in 2004 I used to swap backspace and delete with xmodmap, b=
ut
> >>> since then I haven't had to do it.  I may have known at the time what
> >>> changed, but if I did, that memory is long gone.
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> >>>> What does xev say about the Delete key?
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> >>> It says
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> >>> KeyPress event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x5200001,
> >>> root 0x6ab, subw 0x0, time 607437571, (105,127), root:(286,252),
> >>> state 0x0, keycode 119 (keysym 0xffff, Delete), same_screen YES,
> >>> XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (7f) "=7F"
> >>> XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (7f) "=7F"
> >>> XFilterEvent returns: False
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> >>> which makes a certain amount of sense (to me, anyway): the "delete" k=
ey
> >>> sends the "Delete" keysym and XLookupString turns that into the ASCII=
 DEL
> >>> character.
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> >>> Bonus information:
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> >>> My termlib entry says  kdch1=3D\E[3~.
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> >>> Interestingly (or not) with xfce4-terminal, at my shell prompt,
> >>> Ctrl-V <delete>
> >>> outputs <Esc>[3~, and kdch1 is the same \E[3~ there.
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> >> "Mystery" (partially?) solved.  I see that (presumably since 2004 or s=
o) I
> >> have X resources for xterm
> >> XTerm*backspacekey:	\177
> >> XTerm*deletekey:	\010
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> > those aren't recognized by xterm (see manpage)
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> Looking in my X resources file, I see
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> XTerm.vt100.translations: #override \
>                 <Key>BackSpace: string(\177) \n\
>                 <Key>Delete: string(\010)
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> (which I didn't notice when I quickly looked).
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> Some people might wonder about the ones I mentioned above; the comment
> in my file is revealing:
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> ! Ironically, this works in rxvt and aterm, but not xterm!
> XTerm*backspacekey: \177
> XTerm*deletekey: \010
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> The "mystery" is possible more solved now.

yes... rxvt developers did that in the 1990s, claiming (incorrectly) that
there was considerable overlap.  There sort-of was, but in that overlap
there were differences which led to lots of bug reports.

In a quick check, rxvt-unicode removed that in March 2004
(Lehmann's first commit was in November 2003)

--=20
Thomas E. Dickey <[email protected]>
https://invisible-island.net

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