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Re: Trouble differentiating Backspace from Control-Backspace in rxvt-20050409-9


On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 12:00 PM, Brian Dessent <brian@dessent.net> wrote:
> Jonathon Merz wrote:
>
>> I recently upgraded from rxvt-20050409-7 to rxvt-20050409-9 and have
>> stopped getting different output for Backspace and Control-Backspace.
>> In rxvt-20050409-7, I get ^? for Backspace and ^H for
>> Control-Backspace.  In rxvt-20050409-9, I get ^H for both.
>>
>> I've tried explicitly setting the rxvt backspacekey to ^?, but then I
>> get ^? both with and without the Control key.
>
> I guess the first question is are you using rxvt in native (GDI/W11) or
> X11 mode.  I can't see that much has changed in the patches other than
> tweaks to use the new modular X11 server.  So if you are using GDI mode,
> then I'm at a loss to explain the differences, however if you are using
> X11 mode then it's highly likely that the difference in behavior is due
> to the many changes in the new X server and not anything in rxvt.  You
> should follow up on the cygwin-xfree@ list if that is the case.

Oops, I forgot to make that distinction.  I am running rxvt in native
mode without X.

>> I've also been trying to decipher some of the documentation for
>> terminfo/termcap, though I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around
>> those, and I'm not certain whether that is the path I should go down
>> since my terminfo appears to be unchanged between the two.  For what
>> it's worth, I tried running infocmp on both the -7 and -9 versions and
>> got identical output for them both.
>
> I think terminfo/termcap are irrelevant here as their purpose is to
> describe behavior, not to change it.  They might document for example
> that terminal FOO generates the byte sequence BAR when the user presses
> key X so that programs can know that when TERM=FOO and the sequence BAR
> appears in the input stream that the user has in fact pressed X.  But
> they can't alter the terminal's behavior to make it generate a different
> sequence.

Thanks for clearing me up on that - I suspect I would have spent a lot
of time with little benefit.

After further fiddling, I've at least figured out what's going on, but
I'm still not sure why.  It appears that the change between
rxvt-20050409-7 and rxvt-20050409-9 that has made the difference is in
the patch for src/rxvt/src/feature.h changing:
   # define X11USRLIBDIR		"/usr/lib"
to:
   # define X11USRLIBDIR		"/etc"

The new definition causes rxvt to be able to find the Rxvt default
resources file (a good thing! :) which in both -7 and -9 is found at
/etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt.  In -7, it appears that rxvt was looking
for that file at /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt, where it did not
exist.

That's the part I understand.  The part that I don't understand is
that the problem appears to be the line:
   Rxvt.backspacekey:      ^H
in /etc/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt.

It appears that the Rxvt.backspacekey resource sets the value for both
<Backspace> and <Control-Backspace>.  If I comment that line out, rxvt
works as I wish it to (i.e. <Backspace> gives ^? and
<Control-Backspace> gives ^H).  If I leave that line in, rxvt gives ^H
for both, and if I either change it to ^? or set that resource to ^?
in my ~/.Xdefaults, I always get ^? both with and without the Control
key.

My new questions then, are: Is this correct/expected behavior?  and Is
there any way I can "unset" in my ~/.Xdefaults or somewhere like that
a resource that is set in a system resource file so that I can avoid
modifying the system-wide one?

Thanks again,

-Jon

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