fix bug where first selection snaps to lines

[st.git] / FAQ

diff --git a/FAQ b/FAQ
index adac39f..3502c60 100644 (file)
--- a/FAQ
+++ b/FAQ
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ solution for them is to use the following command:
        $ printf '\033[?1h\033=' >/dev/tty
 
 or
-       $ echo $(tput smkx) >/dev/tty
+       $ tput smkx
 
 In the case of bash, readline is used. Readline has a different note in its
 manpage about this issue:
@@ -86,15 +86,82 @@ Putting these lines into your .zshrc will fix the problems.
 
 ## How can I use meta in 8bit mode?
 
- St supports meta in 8bit mode, but the default terminfo entry doesn't
- use this capability. If you want it, you have to use the 'st-meta' value
- in TERM.
+St supports meta in 8bit mode, but the default terminfo entry doesn't
+use this capability. If you want it, you have to use the 'st-meta' value
+in TERM.
 
 ## I cannot compile st in OpenBSD
 
-OpenBSD lacks of librt, despite it begin mandatory in POSIX
+OpenBSD lacks librt, despite it being mandatory in POSIX
 <http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/c99.html#tag_20_11_13>.
 If you want to compile st for OpenBSD you have to remove -lrt from config.mk, and
 st will compile without any loss of functionality, because all the functions are
 included in libc on this platform.
 
+## The Backspace Case
+
+St is emulating the Linux way of handling backspace being delete and delete being
+backspace.
+
+This is an issue that was discussed in suckless mailing list
+<http://lists.suckless.org/dev/1404/20697.html>. Here is why some old grumpy
+terminal users wants its backspace to be how he feels it:
+
+       Well, I am going to comment why I want to change the behaviour
+       of this key. When ASCII was defined in 1968, communication
+       with computers was done using punched cards, or hardcopy
+       terminals (basically a typewriter machine connected with the
+       computer using a serial port).  ASCII defines DELETE as 7F,
+       because, in punched-card terms, it means all the holes of the
+       card punched; it is thus a kind of 'physical delete'. In the
+       same way, the BACKSPACE key was a non-destructive backspace,
+       as on a typewriter.  So, if you wanted to delete a character,
+       you had to BACKSPACE and then DELETE.  Another use of BACKSPACE
+       was to type accented characters, for example 'a BACKSPACE `'.
+       The VT100 had no BACKSPACE key; it was generated using the
+       CONTROL key as another control character (CONTROL key sets to
+       0 b7 b6 b5, so it converts H (code 0x48) into BACKSPACE (code
+       0x08)), but it had a DELETE key in a similar position where
+       the BACKSPACE key is located today on common PC keyboards.
+       All the terminal emulators emulated the difference between
+       these keys correctly: the backspace key generated a BACKSPACE
+       (^H) and delete key generated a DELETE (^?).
+
+       But a problem arose when Linus Torvalds wrote Linux. Unlike
+       earlier terminals, the Linux virtual terminal (the terminal
+       emulator integrated in the kernel) returned a DELETE when
+       backspace was pressed, due to the VT100 having a DELETE key in
+       the same position.  This created a lot of problems (see [1]
+       and [2]). Since Linux has become the king, a lot of terminal
+       emulators today generate a DELETE when the backspace key is
+       pressed in order to avoid problems with Linux. The result is
+       that the only way of generating a BACKSPACE on these systems
+       is by using CONTROL + H. (I also think that emacs had an
+       important point here because the CONTROL + H prefix is used
+       in emacs in some commands (help commands).)
+
+       From point of view of the kernel, you can change the key
+       for deleting a previous character with stty erase. When you
+       connect a real terminal into a machine you describe the type
+       of terminal, so getty configures the correct value of stty
+       erase for this terminal. In the case of terminal emulators,
+       however, you don't have any getty that can set the correct
+       value of stty erase, so you always get the default value.
+       For this reason, it is necessary to add 'stty erase ^H' to your
+       profile if you have changed the value of the backspace key.
+       Of course, another solution is for st itself to modify the
+       value of stty erase.  I usually have the inverse problem:
+       when I connect to non-Unix machines, I have to press CONTROL +
+       h to get a BACKSPACE. The inverse problem occurs when a user
+       connects to my Unix machines from a different system with a
+       correct backspace key.
+
+       [1] http://www.ibb.net/~anne/keyboard.html
+       [2] http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO-5.html
+
+## But I really want the old grumpy behaviour of my terminal
+
+Apply [1].
+
+[1] http://st.suckless.org/patches/delkey
+