GNU bug report logs - #22566
24.5; Make shift key translation a customizable feature

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From: Aura Kelloniemi <kaura.dev <at> sange.fi>
To: rms <at> gnu.org, 22566 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#22566: 24.5; Make shift key translation a customizable feature
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2016 19:15:31 +0200

Richard Stallman <rms <at> gnu.org> writes:

 > Thanks, now I see.  The idea of this is so the shifted keys
 > by default have the same meaning as the unshifted ones.

One of my points is that this behaviour is not logical. There is no similar
functionality available for other modifier keys (ctonrol, alt, meta, super,
hyper, etc.).

When working with text terminals it happens often that some key combinations
sends the same escape seuqnce for plain key press and shifted key press.
Sometimes termcap is lacking correct information and emacs does not interpret
the sequence correctly. Emacs' shift translation adds yet another step for
debugging these issues.

Shift translation may be useful to some people and I'm not asking for removing
it from emacs, just making it customizable - it shouldn't be a big change.

 > Why is it a problem for you?

Well, two reasons:

First reason is that sometimes I press wrong keys, and instead of reporting an
error, emacs does something else - it tries to guess what I wanted, and
probably gets it wrong. This happens often if I open an Org file in text-mode
(because the file's extension is not .org, this happens automatically). Then I
forget that I'm not in org-mode and use shifted arrow keys, but of course they
don't work in a way I expected.

The other problem is that I've lately been adding support for shifted function
keys to my Linux console keymap. Emacs' shift translation has made my
debugging harder, because when I use the describe-key-briefly command to check
if emacs got a shifted function key right, it just reports something like
this: "<C-right> runs the command right-word" even though I pressed
<C-S-Right>. But when I open an org-file in org-mode and try the same key
combination, emacs now says: "<C-S-right> runs the command
org-shiftcontrolright". Describe-key-briefly should at least report that it is
doing some translation. It already does this reporting for non-function keys.

There is a question about this issues on stackexchange, to which I posted a
link in my original message. There the OP is complaining about the same things
that I am, mostly, but adds some other points.

The link is here again, for reference:
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/25649/is-it-possible-to-stop-emacs-from-down-translating-my-key-chords

-- 
Aura

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