16.13 Miscellaneous Settings for a .emacs File

Here are a few miscellaneous settings:


Fixing Unpleasant Key Bindings

Some systems bind keys unpleasantly. Sometimes, for example, the CTRL key appears in an awkward spot rather than at the far left of the home row.

Usually, when people fix these sorts of key bindings, they do not change their ~/.emacs file. Instead, they bind the proper keys on their consoles with the loadkeys or install-keymap commands in their boot script and then include xmodmap commands in their .xinitrc or .Xsession file for X Windows.

For a boot script:

loadkeys /usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty/emacs2.kmap.gz
or
install-keymap emacs2

For a .xinitrc or .Xsession file when the Caps Lock key is at the far left of the home row:

# Bind the key labeled 'Caps Lock' to 'Control'
# (Such a broken user interface suggests that keyboard manufacturers
# think that computers are typewriters from 1885.)

xmodmap -e "clear Lock"
xmodmap -e "add Control = Caps_Lock"

In a .xinitrc or .Xsession file, to convert an ALT key to a META key:

# Some ill designed keyboards have a key labeled ALT and no Meta
xmodmap -e "keysym Alt_L = Meta_L Alt_L"