Accessing remote Emacs from a Mac terminal emulator

[MBR]

I need to log into a shell on a remote server and then invoke Emacs from
the command line. Up until recently my local machine was a Windows
laptop. I was running 'putty' locally. Putty's front end is a terminal
emulator, and it speaks ssh out its back end.

I recently switched to a Mac, so to accomplish the same task I've been
running the Mac terminal emulator (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
and at the local command line I run:

ssh -p port username@domainname

After I log into the remote machine's shell, I start up Emacs, just as
I've been doing for ages. Almost everything works just as it used to,
BUT when I need to type a keystroke with the Meta modifier (i.e. use the
ALT modifier key) the modifier isn't recognized.

Although I can get the same effect by using the ESC key, that's often a
real pain. For example, if I want to move forward a word at a time,
I'll usually type ALT+f, and then release the "f" key and type it again
several times without ever releasing the ALT key. To do the same thing
with the ESC key, I've got to press ESC, release ESC, press F, release
F, repeat until the cursor's where I want it.

Clearly putty sends something in the SSH protocol that lets the remote
Emacs know when the ALT key is pressed. I don't know if it's the Mac
terminal emulator or the Mac implementation of SSH that's failing to
pass that information along.

Does anyone here have any idea what I need to do to allow the
information about the state of the ALT modifier key to be passed to the
server where Emacs is running?

Mark R.

[Jai Dayal]

I use a mac. To enable the Alt key as meta, do the following:

In the terminal (your Terminal.app) go:
Preferences --> Keyboard, and then check the box for "Use option as meta
key".

Jai

[Jai Dayal]

Option is what you want, anyways, because Alt is obtained from pressing
Shift+Option, so that's why it didn't show up in your Google searches :)

[MBR]

Thanks a lot.

For anyone else who wants to try this, the complete path to the checkbox is:

Terminal > Preferences > Settings > Keyboard > Use option as
meta key

Mark