GNU bug report logs - #1000
C-i is TAB on my Mac

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Message #5 received at submit <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Alex <kensanata <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: C-i is TAB on my Mac
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:39:46 +0200

When I use C-h k C-i I get the following:

TAB runs the command indent-for-tab-command

Apparently C-i gets translated to TAB as if I were in a terminal
window but I'm using Emacs in Apple's windowing system.



In GNU Emacs 22.3.1 (i386-apple-darwin8.11.1, Carbon Version 1.6.0)
 of 2008-09-11 on Pyrobombus.local
Windowing system distributor `Apple Inc.', version 10.4.11
configured using `configure  '--enable-carbon-app''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: nil
  locale-coding-system: iso-latin-1
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Help

Minor modes in effect:
  encoded-kbd-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  iswitchb-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  unify-8859-on-encoding-mode: t
  utf-translate-cjk-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  column-number-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  view-mode: t

Recent input:
C-c TAB C-c <tab> C-c TAB C-c
TAB <C-up> C-SPC <C-down> <escape> x i n d e n t -
r e g i o n <return> C-x C-s <C-up> <C-down> <C-down>
<C-up> C-h k TAB <S-down> <escape> x e m a c s . v
e r <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace>
- v e r <tab> <return> <escape> x r e p o r t <tab>
<return>

Recent messages:
Mark set [2 times]
Mark saved where search started
Mark set
Mark activated
Loading newcomment...done
Saving file /Users/alex/oddmuse/wiki.pl...
Wrote /Users/alex/oddmuse/wiki.pl
Type C-x 1 to remove help window.
GNU Emacs 22.3.1 (i386-apple-darwin8.11.1, Carbon Version 1.6.0) of
2008-09-11 on Pyrobombus.local
Loading emacsbug...done

Message #12 received at 1000 <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Adrian Robert <adrian.b.robert <at> gmail.com>
To: 1000 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: Alex Schröder <kensanata <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: C-i is TAB on my Mac
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:19:01 +0200

I could use some more background here.  Hitting C-h k C-i says the  
key was "TAB", whereas actually hitting C-h k tab says the key was  
"TAB (translated from <tab>)".  Is the definition of tab Ctrl-i and  
then some fancy keyboards later added a Tab key?  What does emacs do  
under X or w32?  What behavior is expected?

thanks

Message #17 received at 1000 <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: "Stefan Monnier" <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
To: "Adrian Robert" <adrian.b.robert <at> gmail.com>
Cc: <1000 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>,
        Alex Schröder <kensanata <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#1000: C-i is TAB on my Mac
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:22:07 -0500

> I could use some more background here.  Hitting C-h k C-i says the key was
> "TAB", whereas actually hitting C-h k tab says the key was  "TAB (translated
> from <tab>)".  Is the definition of tab Ctrl-i and  then some fancy
> keyboards later added a Tab key?  What does emacs do  under X or w32?
> What behavior is expected?

Yes, TAB is an ASCII char whose code is the same as C-i, just like DEL
is an ASCII char (whose code is the same as C-?).  The `tab' key emits
a `tab' symbol event which is then turned into a TAB char event.


        Stefan

Message #22 received at 1000 <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: jasonr <at> f2s.com
To: Adrian Robert <adrian.b.robert <at> gmail.com>, 1000 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#1000: C-i is TAB on my Mac
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:26:22 +0000

Quoting Adrian Robert <adrian.b.robert <at> gmail.com>:

> I could use some more background here.  Hitting C-h k C-i says the
> key was "TAB", whereas actually hitting C-h k tab says the key was
> "TAB (translated from <tab>)".  Is the definition of tab Ctrl-i and
> then some fancy keyboards later added a Tab key?  What does emacs do
> under X or w32?  What behavior is expected?

The definition of C-i is the ASCII control character with a code of 9 (TAB).

w32 also reports simply TAB for C-h k C-i, and TAB (translated from <tab>) for
the tab key. So this is not a Mac specific thing.

While I can see the connection between C-i and ASCII TAB, it does seem
inconsistent, as other control keys are not reported as their ASCII meaning
like this.

Message #25 received at 1000 <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: 1000 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: "Adrian Robert" <adrian.b.robert <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#1000: C-i is TAB on my Mac
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:31:46 -0500

reassign 1000 emacs
stop

This issue (if it is an issue) is the same under X on GNU/Linux, so I
should not have assigned this to ns; sorry.

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