From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 11 23:09:36 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2215B16A400 for ; Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:09:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: from host222.ipowerweb.com (host222.ipowerweb.com [66.235.210.10]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 0B00513C448 for ; Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:09:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: (qmail 95008 invoked from network); 11 Apr 2007 22:42:35 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO demeter.hydra) (24.9.123.251) by host222.ipowerweb.com with SMTP; 11 Apr 2007 22:42:35 -0000 Received: from demeter.hydra (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by demeter.hydra (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id l3BMgrlZ060240 for ; Wed, 11 Apr 2007 16:42:53 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: (from ren@localhost) by demeter.hydra (8.13.6/8.13.6/Submit) id l3BMgqdn060239 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Wed, 11 Apr 2007 16:42:52 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) X-Authentication-Warning: demeter.hydra: ren set sender to perrin@apotheon.com using -f Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 16:42:52 -0600 From: Chad Perrin To: FreeBSD Questions Message-ID: <20070411224252.GA60179@demeter.hydra> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.2i Subject: default shell behavior with aterm X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:09:36 -0000 I've had to solve a problem with unexpected shell behavior when using aterm (my favorite terminal emulator) a couple of times now. This seems to be limited to aterm -- the same problems do not arise at the TTY console or in xterm. Back when I first set up the workstation I'm currently using, with FreeBSD 6.1, one of the unexpected differences from what's familiar to me (having come from Debian GNU/Linux) was the fact that in aterm the open parenthesis character, "(", would behave as a backspace. I solved the problem at the time, with a bit of searching around. Part of what I did to solve the problem involved entering the following command into the .bashrc file for my user account: stty erase2 '^?' Since then, something happened (I just wasn't careful enough with my edits that file, I guess) to that line. Last night, I found myself trying to remember how to solve the problem of REPLs like OCaml's toplevel and the interactive UCBLogo shell treating the open parenthesis character as a backspace. Another part of the solution the first time around -- and one that has not gone away and needed to be refixed -- is to comment out these lines in the file /usr/ports/x11/aterm/Makefile: .if !defined(WITH_BSDEL) CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --disable-backspace-key --disable-delete-key .endif My question is this: Is there some (good) reason that aterm's Makefile contains these lines? Is there some logically justified reason for causing aterm to break the principle of least surprise in this fashion -- since it obviously works differently (surprise!) from the behavior of other means of using the shell? Is this a bug I should submit? -- CD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ] "Real ugliness is not harsh-looking syntax, but having to build programs out of the wrong concepts." - Paul Graham