I can't use Alt+Shift

[Daniel Sousa]

Hi everybody!

I'm trying to start using emacs and I'm following its tutorial.

I have "<" and ">" on the same key (">" is above "<"). I can do M-<, but I can't use M->, when I press the key combination Alt+Shift+< nothing happens :(

I only have this problem when I use emacs with any GUI (I want to run it on another tty), when I use emacs with the x server it works...

Can anyone help me?

Best regards,

Daniel Sousa

PS: If it help, I'm running on Arch Linux.

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 7.1.2012 um 23:29 schrieb Daniel Sousa:

> Can anyone help me?
>
> [...]

>
> PS: If it help, I'm running on Arch Linux.

Introduced with C-h k you can then type some key combination. GNU Emacs will then describe in echo-area ("mini-buffer") that this key combination is not bound to a function or open a *Help* buffer and display the documentation of the function which is bound to the typed key combination.

In X11 you have the utility xev which will explain which X events you have produced by pressing some keys. Maybe Alt+Shift+< does not produce anything...


When you run GNU Emacs in some terminal you do not send any X event to GNU Emacs, only ASCII codes (see "man ascii"). <ESC>-< and <ESC>-<Shift>-<, pressed sequentially as <ESC> first and then either < or >, *will* produce the proper input for GNU Emacs, while pressing Alt+< or Alt+Shift+< *might* produce 8-bit control characters, but what the terminal emulation sends to the programme is not determined because a mapping, established via an X resource for example, might not exist.


I'm not using Arch Linux.

--
Greetings

Pete

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[unfrostedpoptart]

Yeah - I recently ran into a lot of similar issues. You need to run xev and get really good at xmodmap!

[unfrostedpoptart]

[Daniel Sousa]

When I run C-h k and press that key combination, emacs simply ignores it and doesn't even say that it is undefined.

Using ESC it works but the key is really far... Anyway, this isn't a big problem, I think I can live without using it :P

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 17.1.2012 um 13:36 schrieb Daniel Sousa:

> When I run C-h k and press that key combination, emacs simply ignores it
> and doesn't even say that it is undefined.

Correct! In every software terminal emulation GNU Emacs is the guest of this software product. When its host is not able to receive or distinguish the signals about the keys being pressed (or released), then the host cannot send anything to its guest. (You might try to teach your terminal emulation a bit more key events.) So GNU Emacs does not receive anything. To check what it might receive you can press, for example in *scratch* buffer, C-q and then some desired key combination. By this means you record anything the host programme sends to its guest GNU Emacs. You can also type C-h l, which shows a recording of what you typed. Or actually of what GNU Emacs received from your keyboard work...

--
Greetings

Pete

Without vi there is only GNU Emacs

[郭晓峰]

Maybe something below is useful:
- Make sure your terminal or GUI transfer the key to the place you run
emacs. To confirm this, you can use "showkey" in console-tools for
terminal, or "xev" in X.
- If it is transferred, make sure you can see the same "scan code" in
emacs, with "Ctrl-h l", which will show you latest keyboard strokes.
- If you can see the strokes in emacs, make sure it is combined with
the emacs keymap. "Ctrl-h b" will show you all the mapping. "M-right"
or "M->", I am not sure which one you like, should be combined with
the key.
- In the end, make sure <M-right> is combined with some emacs
interactive function.

Hope I didn't miss anything here, and hope the hints are helpful to you.

Best Regards,
Xiaofeng

[Aaron Meurer]

If your terminal program lets you define custom key sequences, you can
work-around this by setting what you want to do as a some other unused
key sequence in your .emacs, and then setting your terminal to convert
the one key sequence to the other.

Aaron Meurer

[rusi]

When I using emacs on a terminal and there's no alt key you can use
ESC instead.
ie do ESC Shift+<