Subject: Re: bug#10387: CODE wishlist: search-prop.el

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:04:10 +0200

> Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 08:51:26 -0800 (PST)
> From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
> Cc: [email-masked]
> 
> > > M-x global-set-key C-~ forward-char
> > 
> > That binds C-^ in -nw.  C-~ isn't a character.
> > (characterp ?\C-~) => nil
> 
> What's your point?
> 
> The claim (from Juri) was that `C-M-~' "cannot be typed on tty".
> 
> But it can be typed.

No, it can't, not on a Unix text terminal.

> And it can be bound to a command.  And typing it invokes the
> command.  And Emacs recognizes it as a binding of that command.

I'm guessing that you tried this on MS-Windows, where C-M-~ and C-~
are indeed usable in a -nw session.  But not on a Unix TTY.  (The
MS-Windows build of Emacs uses Windows-specific method for reading the
keyboard that is very different from character input on a Posix TTY,
and which supports almost every key combination that the GUI session
does.)

> In `emacs -Q -nw', `C-down' is bound to `forward-paragraph'.
> Yet (characterp [(control down)]) is nil.  So what?  Did those
> who defined that default binding for Emacs out of the box make
> a mistake?  Was that a no-no?

I think Unix TTYs can only read those combinations that are
characters.  MS-Windows is different.