Backspace and Delete!

[noelbush-xx]

Breathlessly awaiting backspace and delete! 😸

I got it to compile and run. Yay, Tak!

[sixohsix]

Works for me!

Try Ctrl-H. Does that work?

Run this and send me the output:

echo $TERM

[noelbush-xx]

No, Ctrl-H doesn't work either. My TERM is xterm.

[sixohsix]

Did you know that the UNIX terminal system is a big pile of poo? 💩

Okay, more debugging please. Open tak then type Alt-Shift-p. At the bottom it should say "Showing key events". Hit backspace and tell me what event it outputs (if anything). Something like KeyEvent KeyDel.

[noelbush-xx]

Wait, so are you developing this on an Apple™ Macintosh® brand computing system or something?

Okay, when I press Backspace in Alt-Shift-P Mode, I get:

KeyEvent (KeyCtrlChar 'I')

What tells you that?

[sixohsix]

It tells me your terminal is a lying jerk. The backspace key is supposed to be detected by the termcap library and ncurses, but your backspace key is sending a different keycode than I've seen before. I guess I will have to figure out yet another way to detect the backspace keycode.

Are you using gnome-terminal, perhaps?

Does the Delete key do anything? Behave like backspace? What key event does it send? Do you even have a separate delete key or is it a laptop?

[sixohsix]

Incidentally, it works fine on my Mac and on xterm on Arch Linux. So I'm thinking 2/3 are right and your terminal is the dumb one.

[sixohsix]

Ctrl-I is tab for me.

[noelbush-xx]

Oh, wait, sorry, I'm a stupid 🐷. I pressed the wrong key in my excitement. When I press Backspace (or Delete), the display says "NoEvent".

[noelbush-xx]

But yes, I am using Gnome Terminal. And usually I know which keys are which on my keyboard. Somehow I just got a little 😕.

[sixohsix]

If you have plain boring xterm, try tak with that and see if backspace works.

I'm trying to find a better way to detect keycodes.

[noelbush-xx]

Okay, I tried plain boring xterm. Unfortunately backspace & delete don't work there for me, either. The Alt key is weird too, apparently -- when I try Alt-Shift-P, it just displays M-C~P and doesn't switch into the special mode. And I can't quit. I guess my xterm is dumb too.

[sixohsix]

I don't know if this will tell me anything but please try this in gnome term:

printf "%d\n" "'$(tput kbs)"
printf "%d\n" "'$(tput ta)"
printf "%d\n" "'$(tput dc)"

[noelbush-xx]

noel@floyd:~$ printf "%d\n" "'$(tput kbs)"
127
noel@floyd:~$ printf "%d\n" "'$(tput ta)"
tput: unknown terminfo capability 'ta'
0
noel@floyd:~$ printf "%d\n" "'$(tput dc)"
tput: unknown terminfo capability 'dc'
0

[sixohsix]

THAT IS EVEN MORE MYSTERIOUS AND BROKEN THAN I IMAGINED POSSIBLE

I'll probably have to install a Linux VM with gnome-term and try arcane magic there. This will not be fixed quickly, but thanks for your help.

[noelbush-xx]

Okay, let me know if you want me to try something else. In answer to your question above, yes I have a separate Delete key, which does forward erase.